{ "item_title" : "How to Do It", "item_author" : [" Rudolph M. Bell "], "item_description" : "Hope to conceive a boy? Tie a tourniquet around your husband's left testicle. Pregnant and fear a weak or malformed baby? Frequent hearty laughter should reduce the risk. And if you're a teenager of good repute, avoid dancing at all costs and stay away from wine, cosmetics, and flashy dress.What may seem quirky to today's readers certainly wasn't to its original audience--Renaissance Italians. They read advice manuals prodigiously, seeking guidance from the latest books by best-selling alchemists and snake-oil peddlers like Mrs. Isabella Cortese and Dr. Leonardo Fioravanti with an avidity not bestowed even on a Dante or a Machiavelli. How to Do It shows us sixteenth-century Italy from an entirely new perspective: through manuals which were staples in the households of middlebrow Italians just trying to lead a better life.Rudolph M. Bell serves as your guide, sharing the nuggets he mined during a decade of wide research in rare book rooms. He uncovers a culture much like our own in which people sought advice for everything from reining in a wayward spouse to running an efficient household. Italians who faced such timeless challenges turned to these remarkable books, which were written specifically for families of moderate means, complete with indexes, tables of contents, and marginal summaries making them easy to consult as problems arose. Bell's journey through manuals long ignored or dismissed by scholars as being of little literary value and intellectual depth gives us a refreshing and surprisingly fun, and funny, social history. How to Do It--like the advise it is based on-is witty and easygoing, offering a view of Renaissance life rarely seen.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/22/604/200/0226042006_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "28.00", "online_price" : "28.00", "our_price" : "28.00", "club_price" : "28.00", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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