How to Do Itshows us sixteenth-century Italy from an entirely new perspective: through manuals which were staples in the households of middlebrow Italians merely trying to lead better lives. Addressing challenges such as how to conceive a boy, the manuals offered suggestions such as tying a tourniquet around your husband's left testicle. Or should you want to goad female desires, throw 90 grubs in a liter of olive oil, let steep in the sun for a week and apply liberally on the male anatomy. Bell's journey through booklets long dismissed by scholars as being of little literary value gives us a refreshing and surprisingly fun social history.
Table of Contents
List of IllustrationsAcknowledgments
1. Readers
2. ConceptionBoy or GirlFrequency of IntercoursePositions during IntercourseSettingMale ImpotenceInfertility
in WomenMenstruationAre You Pregnant?
3. Pregnancy and ChildbirthBoy or Girl?Maybe Twins?Due DateMiscarriageDiet and Daily ActivityMidwivesAnatomyLaborPostpartum
Care
4. Raising Your ChildNursing: Who Should Do It?Nursing: How to Do ItChild Rearing: Physical HealthChild Rearing:
Good CharacterChildren's Books
5. AdolescenceWho Was an Adolescent?The Sins of AdolescenceMaking FunChoosing a Spouse
6. Marital RelationsFrom the HumanistsFrom the ChurchFrom the GentlemenWidows
