A Cultural History of the Senses in the Renaissance

"We know the Renaissance as a key moment in the history of Europe. It saw the rise of court and urban cultures, witnessed the first global voyages of discovery and the emergence of the Reformation and the Counter Reformation. Indeed, it started with the invention of linear perspective, oil painting and moveable type. All these developments were significant in terms of sensory knowledge and the sensory practices of the everyday. Does the Renaissance stand for the 'ascendancy of the eye'? What happened to the sensory extremes which the famous Dutch historian Johan Huizinga still perceived in the fifteenth century? Did they simply disappear, or is there another history to be told: one of a surprising continuity, of the 'lower' senses - those of taste, smelland touch - hardly losing ground, neither in their daily prevalence nor in the cultural significance attached to them? This volume, assembling ten outstanding specialists, seeks to answer all these questions while offering a lively and sensational portrait of the period.The Cultural History of the Senses set delves into the sensory foundations of Western civilization, taking a comprehensive period-by-period approach which provides a broad understanding of the life of the senses from antiquity to the modern day. Each of the volumes explores the following topics: The Social Life of the Senses; Urban Sensations; The Senses in the Marketplace; The Senses in Religion; The Senses in Philosophy and Science; Medicine and the Senses; The Senses in Literature; TheSenses in Art; and Sensory Media. Superbly illustrated, this six-volume set is the most authoritative and comprehensive historical survey of the senses available"--