Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



Click to view high resolution image

  • Title: Dancing
  • Creator: Workshop of Giovannino de Grassi, painter
  • Description: The Tacuinum sanitatis was an eleventh-century health handbook written by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad. In it he presents the elements needed for a healthful and happy life. He recommends dancing for the pleasure that may be found in the harmony. In the fourteenth-century illustrated versions the emphasis is on picturing attractive scenes drawing on themes from courtly love, fashionable dress, and estate management for an idealized view of agriculture, food production, and healthy living. This picture shows a woman holding hands with two men in a line dance. They are accompanied by two musicians.
  • Source: Wikimedia Commons
  • Rights: Public Domain
  • Subject (See Also): Dance Medical Manuscripts Music
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 14
  • Date: ca. late 1390s
  • Related Work: Tacuinum sanitatis, a medical treatise. Also known as the Theatrum sanitatis.
    The manuscript is fully digitized on the Biblioteca Casanatense site.
    See the illustration for Linen in the Vienna manuscript, fol. 105v:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Tacuin_Lin47.jpg/107px-Tacuin_Lin47.jpg
  • Current Location: Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense, MS 4182, fol. 201
  • Original Location:
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Manuscript Illuminations
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Vellum (parchment); Paint
  • Donor:
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): //
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Cathleen Hoeniger, "The Illuminated Tacuinum sanitatis Manuscripts from Northern Italy ca. 1380-1400: Sources, Patrons, and the Creation of a New Pictorial Genre." Visualizing Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200-1550. Edited by Jean A. Givens, Karen M. Reeds, and Alain Touwaide. Ashgate,2006. Pp. 51-81.