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Food, Social Politics and the Order of Nature in Renaissance Italy

Allen J Grieco author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Harvard University Press

Published:28th Feb '20

Should be back in stock very soon

Food, Social Politics and the Order of Nature in Renaissance Italy cover

The act of eating is a basic human need. Yet in all societies, quotidian choices regarding food and its consumption reveal deeply rooted shared cultural conventions. Food goes beyond issues relating to biological needs and nutrition or production and commerce; it also reveals social and cultural criteria that determine what dishes are prepared on what occasions, and it unveils the politics of the table via the rituals associated with different meals. This book approaches the history of food in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy through an interdisciplinary prism of sources ranging from correspondence, literature (both high and low), and medical and dietary treatises to cosmographic theory and iconographic evidence. Using a variety of analytical methods and theoretical approaches, it moves food studies firmly into the arena of Late Medieval and Renaissance history, providing an essential key to deciphering the material and metaphorical complexity of this period in European, and especially Italian, history.

A comprehensive and insightful contribution on the subject of food culture in the Renaissance. -- Marco Malvestio * Renaissance and Reformation *
Grieco’s book, much awaited, maintains his promise of being a milestone in food history, regardless of the time period it covers…A deep inquiry into the mutual relationships between moral and political economies, as well as of knowledge production, and dissemination. For materially and visually-minded historians of science and knowledge this book is a treasure of suggestions, both about the systems of classifications of nature and about the daily life of people elaborating and disseminating knowledge about the edible side of the natural world. -- Paolo Savoia * Nuncius *
Over the course of a long and distinguished career, Grieco has been a pioneering figure in Renaissance food history…This opulently illustrated collection brings together a number of Grieco’s most important pieces published over the past several decades…A fitting coda to the admirable career of a pioneer in food history. -- Eric Dursteler * Journal of Early Modern History *

ISBN: 9780674244085

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

328 pages