When talking about personal hygiene in a Renaissance setting we need to forget our modern points of reference. In the 16th Century personal hygiene and washing habits were based on the observance of some basic rules which recommended washing your hands and face once a day, your hair once a week and changing your undergarments quite frequently. Cleaning your teeth was also considered a...

Venetian women were excluded from the management of power and from advanced instruction but they participated to other forms of public life. They were important figures in the social, economical and cultural life of the city for the contacts that they held in the familiar relationships, in those with the neighbors and in the common affairs of daily life. In spite of their limited access to positions of power,...

The Vatican Secret Archives Revealed - LUX IN ARCANA The Vatican archives, more than 1,000 year old, will go on show in a special exhibition in Rome's Capitoline Museums from February to September this year to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the establishment. Conclaves, heresies, popes and emperors. Crusades, excommunications, ciphered letters. Manuscripts, codices, ancient...