“This book adds an entirely new dimension to the consideration
of Humanism and Italian culture. It will make a welcome addition
to the field of cultural studies by broadening the subject to
consider an important source of information that has been
previously overlooked.” —Timothy McGee The Eloquent Body offers
a history and analysis of court dancing during the Renaissance,
within the context of Italian Humanism. Each chapter addresses
different philosophical, social, or intellectual aspects of
dance during the 15th century. Some topics include issues of
economic class, education, and power; relating dance treatises
to the ideals of Humanism and the meaning of the arts; ideas of
the body as they relate to elegance, nobility, and ethics; the
intellectual history of dance based on contemporaneous readings
of Pythagoras and Plato; and a comparison of geometric dance
structures to geometric order in Humanist architecture.