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.