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Article: The Culture of Cleanliness in Renaissance Italy.(Book review)
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- December 22, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Culture of Cleanliness in Renaissance Italy. By Douglas Biow. (Ithaca, N.Y." Cornell University Press, 2006. Pp. xxiv, 244. $35.00.)
In a well-conceived and engaging book, the author brings literary scholars low, down from the elevated perch of classical authors into the muck of Renaissance literature. Noting the importance of cleanliness to the cultural history of the European West and the dearth of literary studies of cleanliness, Douglas Biow offers "a new, unified interpretation of Italian Renaissance literature" (xi).
In making the claim, the author provides several caveats delineating the parameters of the book, which is not a comprehensive ...