Makeup and female beauty standards in Renaissance Italy

In Renaissance Italy, the female beauty ideal included features such as blonde hair and a pale skin. Women tried their best to live up to these expectations, but elaborate makeup and beauty routines were not without risk.

Marlisa den Hartog • July 10, 2020

Love Magic and Rape Drugs in Late Medieval Italy

Magical practices such as brewing love potions and performing necromantic rituals can be found in medieval literature as well as in books of medicine and theology. But how did they work? And were they really that innocuous?

Marlisa den Hartog • February 07, 2020

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. On looks and personality in medieval thought

In Renaissance Italy, “beautiful people” were believed to be good, whereas “ugly people” were generally bad. But what was the “logic” behind this reasoning?

Marlisa den Hartog • September 06, 2019

Poltergeist pranks: More tales about the supernatural in medieval Italy

In this blog post we will look into a number of clever, but often cruel, practical jokes in which gullible victims, through a mix of staging and theatre, are made to believe that a ghost or demon is after them.

Marlisa den Hartog • April 19, 2019

Horn-bearers, voodoo dolls and magic cups: Discovering adultery with medieval magic tricks

The main attraction of magic was its perceived power to influence things that made people anxious, because they were beyond their control. Judging by medieval literature, to a medieval husband, one of the biggest causes for anxiety was his wife’s fidelity.

Marlisa den Hartog • January 11, 2019

Worms, Corruption, and Medieval Detoxing

Laxatives, bloodletting, vomiting - medieval medicine was very preoccupied with purging the human body. And with reason, as little animals might be living inside of us...

Marlisa den Hartog • July 20, 2018

“A pair of apples fashioned in ivory”: Female breasts and the male gaze in Renaissance Italy

[Click here: naked women!] Modern advertising companies often use the female body, and breasts in particular, to attract attention. Renaissance artists and writers were rather preoccupied with the subject too.

Marlisa den Hartog • March 02, 2018

The walking dead: Fear of the supernatural in the Italian novella

“Varied and strange indeed are the terrors that the dead give the living."

Marlisa den Hartog • October 13, 2017

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