A History of Verona

A Cultural History of Sport in the Renaissance covers the period 1450 to 1650. Outwardly, Renaissance sports resembled their medieval forebears, but the incorporation of athletics into the educational curriculum signalled a change. As part of the scientific revolution, sport now became the object of intellectual analysis. Numerous books were written on the medical benefits of sport and on the best way to joust, fence, train horses and ride, play ball games, swim, practice archery, wrestle, or become an acrobat. Sport became the visible sign of the mind's control over the physical body, such control often becoming an end in itself with some sports shaped more by decorum than exercise.