Binding passions : tales of magic, marriage, and power at the end of the Renaissance

Oxford University Press, New York ; Oxford, 1993. First Edition. Hardcover. Good Condition. Mining the rich Venetian archives, especially the unusually detailed records of Venice's own branch of the Roman Inquisition, Guido Ruggiero provides a strikingly new and provocative interpretation of the end of the Renaissance in Italy. In this boldly structured work, he develops five narrative accounts of individual encounters with the Inquisition that illustrate the double-edged metaphor of how passions were both bound by late Renaissance society and were seen in turn as binding people. In this way new perspectives are opened on magic, witchcraft, love, marriage, gender, and discipline at the level of the community and beyond. Witches, courtesans, prostitutes, women healers, nobles, Cardinals, and renegade priests and monks speak from these pages describing their lives, beliefs, hopes, fears, and lies. With an imaginative flair for storytelling and impeccable scholarship, Ruggiero exposes the rich complexity of the culture and poetics of the everyday at the end of the Renaissance and illuminates a previously unexplored chapter in Italian history. – Amazon The previous owner had covered the book with plastic and has left tape marks on the front and rear pace downs, and the spine has been reinforced with clear tape. There are some pencil notes in the first chapter, otherwise the book is clean and free of other annotation. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. 286 pages. Please refer to accompanying picture (s). Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: History; Sex customs -- Italy -- Venice -- History; Social Sciences; Anthropology; Italy; Renaissance 16thc to 17thc; Sociology & Culture. ISBN: 0195079302. ISBN/EAN: 9780195079302. Dewey Code: 306.7094531. Inventory No: 0269474. . 9780195079302