Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron contains a novella that details the sudden death of a young man called Gabriotto, including a portrayal of the discomfort that the protagonist experienced and a rudimentary autopsy performed by local physicians. The intriguing description of symptoms and pathologies has made it possible to read a 7-century-old case through the modern clinical lens. Thanks to the medical and philological analysis of the text—despite the vast difference between modern and medieval medicine—2 hypothetical diagnoses have emerged: either an aortic dissection or an atrial myxoma.
design. Design historians would not be content to tell the history of industrialisation through images alone; rather we would examine objects in three dimensions and consider, too, associated materials such as drawings, models, and patents. Cottini, on the other hand, gives readers an extended account of representations of objects in literature. Chapter two, on timepieces, begins with a history of modern time and a discussion of some paintings, then returns to novels, then moves to discuss business, namely Bulgari and Borletti, before closing with paintings again. This pattern is consistent with the book's aim of demonstrating the influence of high culture on mass and popular culture, or of art on design, but it also risks eliding representation and the histories of design and business. Cottini is conscious of the difference and is fully aware of the complex ways in which images function to obscure as well as expose reality. When writing about 'Industrial Photographs and the Fictional Vision' he recognises the political function of faked and staged photographs in photo-reportage which 'extended the vision of the present to future generations, yet also flattened and fetishized its memory' (p. 57). Turning to Secondo Pia's photograph of the Turin shroud, Cottoni notes that as it revealed the outline of (Christ's?) body, so it 'turned from a "reproducible" industrial artefact (promoting an industrial exhibit) into a paradoxical icon, endowed with a mystical aura, different layers of meanings and an inherent critical apparatus' (p. 62). Cottini further distances himself from design history and its practitioners when he notes that the British Arts and Crafts Movement was 'launched in 1887 by John Ruskin and William Morris' (p. 22), which is a simplification. Similarly, in closing the book, Cottini briefly reviews the points in time which other scholars have identified as constituting the moments of 'the origins of Italian design', as though such a point might be identified, which I doubt. Also notable is the fact that the history of technology is not mentioned in the book, yet the chapters focus on time, the photographic process and cycling, all of which are technologies. Writing about the development of the Italian press, for example, Cottini shows it to be a product of the printing innovations brought about by industrialisation, and a showcase of products of technological progress, especially those focussed on Italy's distinction in textiles and food. For Cottini, industry and technology are conflated, but while it is a missed opportunity that he hasn't situated his narrative and his research within the history of technology, I hope his really excellent book will engage the readership it deserves in the history of technology as well as design studies and Italian studies.
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