Alle origini della chirurgia plastica nei “Libri dei segreti” e nei trattati del XVI secolo

Autore: Elena Lazzarini
In: Genesis. X/1, 2011
doi:10.1400/180148
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Abstract

The origins of plastic surgery: practice and standards of female beauty in the Libri dei segreti and treatises of the sixteenth century
A wide range of Libri dei segreti and treatises on female beauty and behaviour produced during the XVI century provide accounts regarding physical alterations, cosmetic treatment and behavioural rules which challenged conventional views. These sources open up important paths of inquiry and understanding for anyone concerned with the perception of both female body and behaviour in daily life in sixteenth-century Italy. It is through these texts that we can begin to develop a fuller picture of the prominence given to physical beauty and its connection with the practises that aim to make the body beautiful following the canons of that time. Passages which deal with female beauty and behaviour indicate the different ways in which social conventions and rigid prescriptions contribute to the construction and display of the ideal female body.