Playing the Printed Piazza: Giovanni de’ Bardi’s Discorso sopra il giuoco del calcio fiorentino and Somaesthetic Discipline in Grand-Ducal Florence

Abstract

Chapter Five closely examines the first illustrated treatise of the Florentine ball game known as calcio, published and dedicated to Grand Duke Francesco I by Giovanni de’Bardi in 1580, to reconstruct the somaesthetic experience of reading and playing a virtual game. Analyzing the imagery and text of the treatise in relation to military tactics, ceremonial culture, and the wider visual culture of leisure in the Renaissance, the chapter argues that the treatise offered a performative space for readers to act out the game and demonstrate a form of command that was otherwise reserved for the Grand Duke and his inner circle. The chapter explores how the treatise somaesthetically constructs the reader as a subject in relation to the Medici family and encourages a mode of comportment that reflected the ideals of Florentine governance.