Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Childbirth in Renaissance Italy was commemorated with a range of objects, including paintings, sculpture, wooden bowls, food and linens. This work explores the appearance, meaning and function of these objects, and describes the social and cultural context in which they were created.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Musacchio's book--beautifully produced, engagingly written, on an important and understudied subject--is a most welcome addition to the literature of Renaissance art and culture. The author set out to answer this question: Why did Renaissance women have so many objects associated with pregnancy and childbirth? Most familiar of these are wooden trays (deschi di parto) and maiolica ware, but frescoes, panel paintings, drawings, and tomb sculpture also figure in this fascinating account. Musacchio's extensive archival research yielded a rich trove of sources--inventories, letters, diaries, and more--that cast new light on the material culture of childbirth. Drawing on all of these, she has produced an authoritative, scrupulous, compellingly readable text that will serve a wide range of readers from the general public to specialists in Italian art and culture from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance. Even better, she has generously included a thorough glossary of terms used to denote the objects and customs associated with childbirth and, in four appendixes, extensive transcriptions of relevant documents. Lavishly illustrated with many color plates, and reasonably priced at that, this volume is an essential addition to any library. General readers; undergraduates through faculty. A. Derbes Hood College