Daily Life in Renaissance Italy

by Elizabeth S. Cohen, Thomas V. Cohen

Discover what life was like for ordinary people living in Renaissance Italy. How was their society organized? What were their homes like? What dangers did they face? These and other questions are answered in detail to provide the reader with a unique view of the world of the Italian Renaissance. A multitude of settings and socioeconomic backgrounds are presented, from urban life to country life, from upper-class to peasant-class, to paint a full portrait of the different kinds of existence of people of this culture.



Recipes, profiles of actual individuals, and over 40 illustrations help bring the period to life. Learn what they ate, what their homes were like, how they spent their leisure time, what their work was like, and much more. Modern readers will be surprised to find fundamental similarities between our lives today and the lives of these people living over 500 years ago, as well as to discover that many of the perceptions they may have of this time period are inaccurate.

Genres: History, Italy, Nonfiction, Renaissance

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Jo Walton]

Super useful book, full of information, highly recommended, with great examples and lots of valuable detail, but a reference book not the kind of book to read for fun, though I did read it all through. Recommended to anyone studying the period, anyone writing anything set in the period.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough overview of all things Renaissance Italy. The Cohens have written a wonderful introduction to multifarious topics of further research concerning the Renaissance in Italy. Their chapters range from economics and political structures to leisure and rivalry. They also do their best to talk about not only the elite, of which there is plenty of data, but also the common people and even the lowest of the low, in an attempt to give a broad view of Italian life during this time period, rather than a narrow, focused one. My one complaint is the writing style: throughout the book, there are so many awkward sentences and turns of phrase, it made me wonder if English was the authors' second language. However, this is only a mild annoyance and doesn't really detract from understanding their work. Definitely a recommendation for anyone interested in the Italian Renaissance, but uncertain of where to begin.

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overall survey, not just of daily life in renaissance Italy, but also of the people’s systems of belief and ways of looking at things (not just society and religion, but also “basic” concepts like age, work, and time) which might be taken for granted by modern readers. Most chapters are also specifically illustrated by quotations from primary texts – interestingly enough, many are from court documents, even on subjects that do not directly concern judicial matters (work schedules, clothing, et al.). Unlike many works on daily life in historical periods, this book does not appear to be specifically geared towards writers.

[Reading Through the Lists · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of useful information about the daily life of Renaissance Italians. Of course, covering almost 200 years and an entire peninsula, it can hardly be detailed and must make broad sweeps about culture, but it's a good jumping off point for someone starting to research the Renaissance.
Larger font and more white space would have been appreciated though.