{"title":"Piero Camporesi","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the fascinating world of Piero Camporesi, a master of historical anthropology. Explore his captivating works on folklore, medicine, and the social history of food. A must-read for history enthusiasts.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"exotic-brew-book-piero-camporesi-9780745608778","title":"Exotic Brew","description":"\"Exotic Brew\" is a concise and elegant account of the eating and drinking habits of the upper classes in the eighteenth century, written by one of the foremost historians of food and social manners in Europe. Camporesi examines the shift from a rich, heavy diet to a much lighter one which emphasized 'exotic' foods like tea, coffee and chocolate. This shift was, he argues, a sign of the profound transformations in fashion, taste and manners that took place in Italy and the rest of Europe in the Enlightenment. He describes how the upper classes were anxious to leave behind the heritage of the 'dark' age, and to elaborate a nimbler, more refined life-style.With this new life-style came a lighter, more functional diet, free of the rich meats, strong spices, and pungent and unsociable aromas (cheese, onion, garlic) which characterized the old cuisine. The new cuisine that emerged was intended to be as pleasing to the eye as to the palate: it suited sensitive dispositions, the meagre appetites of noblewomen, and was perfectly in tune with the new preference for close-fitting clothes and slimness of figure. Camporesi places these changes in taste and cuisine in their socio-cultural context, including the increasing importance of French cultural models in the world of food and drink, and describes the growing interest taken in the world outside Europe, especially China and the Americas, where most of the exotic additions to the European diet originated.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49514390552849,"sku":"GOR013509630","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0745608779.jpg?v=1751169428"},{"product_id":"fear-of-hell-book-piero-camporesi-9780745606460","title":"The Fear of Hell","description":"This book considers two of the most potent Christian concepts - Hell and the Eucharist. In the first part of the book, the author argues that fear of Hell was a common preoccupation in the 16th and 17th centuries. Drawing on the sermons of the preachers of the Counter-Reformation, he shows how the image of Hell developed into a grotesque parody of divine judgement which was only arrested by the onset of the Enlightenment. The second part considers the Eucharist, or Host, the embodiment of corporeal salvation. The author describes how it was related to the human body, and the kinds of mystical properties with which it was invested.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49617950277905,"sku":"GOR005998188","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49810636472593,"sku":"CIN0745606466G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0745606466.jpg?v=1751042484"},{"product_id":"fear-of-hell-book-piero-camporesi-9780271007342","title":"The Fear of Hell","description":"The Fear of Hell is a provocative study of two of the most powerful images in Christianity—hell and the eucharist. Drawing upon the writings of Italian preachers and theologians of the Counter-Reformation, Piero Camporesi demonstrates the extraordinary power of the Baroque imagination to conjure up punishments, tortures, and the rewards of sin.  In the first part of the book, Camporesi argues that hell was a very real part of everyday life during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Preachers portrayed hell in images typical of common experience, comparing it to a great city, a hospital, a prison, a natural disaster, a rioting mob, or a feuding family. The horror lay in the extremes to which these familiar images could be taken. The city of hell was not an ordinary city, but a filthy, stinking, and overcrowded place, an underworld \"sewer\" overflowing with the refuse of decaying flesh and excrement—shocking but not beyond human imagination.   What was most disturbing about this grotesque imagery was the realization by the people of the day that the punishment of afterlife was an extension of their daily experience in a fallen world. Thus, according to Camporesi, the fear of hell had many manifestations over the centuries, aided by such powerful promoters as Gregory the Great and Dante, but ironically it was during the Counter-Reformation that hell's tie with the physical world became irrevocable, making its secularization during the Enlightenment ultimately easier. The eucharist, or host, the subject of the second part of the book, represented corporeal salvation for early modern Christians and was therefore closely linked with the imagery of hell, the place of perpetual corporeal destruction. As the bread of life, the host possessed many miraculous powers of healing and sustenance, which made it precious to those in need. In fact, it was seen to be so precious to some that Camporesi suggests that there was a \"clandestine consumption of the sacred unleavened bread, a network of dealers and sellers\" and a \"market of consumers.\" But to those who ate the host unworthily was the prospect of swift retribution. One wicked priest continued to celebrate the mass despite his sin, and as a result, \"his tongue and half of his face became rotten, thus demonstrating, unwillingly, by the stench of his decaying face, how much the pestiferous smell of his contaminated heart was abominable to God.\" When received properly, however, the host was a source of health and life both in this world and in the world to come.   Written with style and imagination, The Fear of Hell offers a vivid and scholarly examination of themes central to Christian culture, whose influence can still be found in our beliefs and customs today.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49634921808145,"sku":"GOR002419577","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50077071474961,"sku":"CIN0271007346G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0271007346.jpg?v=1751038451"},{"product_id":"bread-of-dreams-book-piero-camporesi-9780226092584","title":"Bread of Dreams","description":"This study examines the imaginative world of poor and ordinary people in pre-industrial Europe, exploring their everyday preoccupations, fears and fantasies. Camporesi develops the claim that many people in early-modern Europe lived in a state of almost permanent hallucination, drugged by their hunger or by bread adulterated with hallucinogenic herbs. The use of opiate products, administered even to children and infants, was widespread and was linked to a popular mythology in which herbalists and exorcists were important cultural figures. Through a reconstruction of the everyday imaginative life of peasants, beggars and the poor, Camporesi presents a disconcerting image of early-modern Europe as a vast laboratory of dreams. This book provides an insight into the everyday life and attitudes of people in pre-industrial Europe.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50292259389713,"sku":"CIN0226092585G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50450806538513,"sku":"CIN0226092585VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52898276671761,"sku":"GOR014654367","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0226092585.jpg?v=1751070166"},{"product_id":"magic-harvest-book-piero-camporesi-9780745621968","title":"The Magic Harvest","description":"The Magic Harvest is a rich and wide-ranging account of the history of popular beliefs about food in Europe.    Focusing on Italy, Camporesi examines the social symbolism of food, and its associated rituals. He shows how the act of eating at weddings and seasonal feasts was seen as a metaphor for copulation; how Christmas and Easter were marked by special cakes rich in eggs, symbolizing renewal; how bread was viewed as a magic talisman against the forces of darkness; and how the harvest was regarded as the offspring of a fertile Earth which yielded up its fruits. All this rich and varied symbolism, he suggests, has become an opaque enigma for us today.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50523863515409,"sku":"CIN0745621961VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51006419304721,"sku":"NIN9780745621968","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52122634748177,"sku":"NLS9780745621968","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52580257104145,"sku":"CIN0745621961G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0745621961.jpg?v=1772791425"},{"product_id":"bread-of-dreams-book-piero-camporesi-9780745603490","title":"Bread of Dreams","description":"Piero Camporesi is one of the most original and exciting cultural historians in Europe today. In this remarkable book he examines the imaginative world of poor and ordinary people in pre-industrial Europe, exploring their everyday preoccupations, fears and fantasies. Camporesi develops the startling claim that many people in early modern Europe lived in a state of almost permanent hallucination, drugged by their hunger or by bread adulterated with hallucinogenic herbs. The use of opiate products, administered even to children and infants, was widespread and was linked to a popular mythology in which herbalists and exorcists were important cultural figures. Through a careful reconstruction of the everyday imaginative life of peasants, beggars and the poor, Camporesi presents a vivid and disconcerting image of early modern Europe as a vast laboratory of dreams. The book should be of interest to university students and academics in medieval and early modern European history, literature, sociology and anthropology; and general readers interested in life in pre-industrial Europe.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50822700237073,"sku":"GOR007683362","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50851396321553,"sku":"GOR007755578","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0745603491.jpg?v=1751361627"},{"product_id":"incorruptible-flesh-book-piero-camporesi-9780521108829","title":"The Incorruptible Flesh","description":"What significance did the body have for the obsessively religious, superstitious, yet materially bound minds of the pre-industrial age? The human body was a constant prey to disease, plague, unhealthy living conditions, the evil effects of druggery and nutritional deficiency, yet the saints seemed to testify to the existence of life beyond this, to a tangible Garden of Eden where all suffering was reversed. The right to entry to this haven was also seen in corporeal terms. The practice of abstemiousness, self-inflicted torture, even the courting of humiliation could trigger visions of beatitude, of the longed-for paradise. In this extraordinary and often astounding book, Professor Camporesi traces these experiences back to various documents across the centuries and explores the juxtaposition of medicine and sorcery, cookery and surgery, pharmacy and alchemy. He opens the window on a fascinating and colourful, if at times violent, world: of levitating and gyrating saints, gardens full of candied fruits and crystalline fountains, amazing exorcisms and arcane medical practices.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51003030798609,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51003033616657,"sku":"NIN9780521108829","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52477637460241,"sku":"NLS9780521108829","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0521108829.jpg?v=1750879713"},{"product_id":"bread-of-dreams-book-piero-camporesi-9780745618364","title":"Bread of Dreams","description":"Piero Camporesi is one of the most original and exciting cultural historians in Europe today. In this remarkable book he examines the imaginative world of poor and ordinary people in pre-industrial Europe, exploring their everyday preoccupations, fears and fantasies.   Camporesi develops the startling claim that many people in early modern Europe lived in a state of almost permanent hallucination, drugged by their hunger or by bread adulterated with hallucinogenic herbs. The use of opiate products, administered even to children and infants, was widespread and was linked to a popular mythology in which herbalists and exorcists were important cultural figures. Through a careful reconstruction of the everyday imaginative life of peasants, beggars and the poor, Camporesi presents a vivid and disconcerting image of early modern Europe as a vast laboratory of dreams.   Bread of Dreams is a rich and engaging book which provides a fresh insight into the everyday life and attitudes of people in pre-industrial Europe. Camporesi's vision is breathtaking and his work will be much discussed among social and cultural historians. This edition includes a Preface by Roy Porter, Professor of the History of Medicine at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51885207355665,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51885207388433,"sku":"GOR004812640","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780745618364.jpg?v=1780566129"},{"product_id":"gout-du-chocolat-book-piero-camporesi-9782246445715","title":"Le goût du chocolat","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53015363846417,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53015364370705,"sku":"NIN9782246445715","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}]}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-piero-camporesi.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}