Douglas Biow

This is an excellent book which I had merely skimmed before for my research. Unsure where I had found the facts I wanted to use, I had to re-read it and found it still more fascinating. Biow's research does not blend completely well in this book, but rather separates into three separate streams, you'll pardon the expression: the idea of cleanliness in Renaissance Italian literature; Italian Renaissance depictions of laundry, washerwomen and soap; and the figure of the latrine-cleaner and latrine in Italian Ren society and literature.
Though there are details here for the practical re-enactor (washerwomen, latrines, soap) the primary focus is a philosophical one. Still quite readable.… (més)