In Valeria Finucci’s book different dimensions of early modern medicine are shown in interaction with the individual life of Vincenzo Gonzaga, fourth duke of Mantua. Because of Gonzaga’s status, his life had repercussions on the political, cultural and social dimensions of the duchy of Mantua and of other Italian states with which the duke dealt. Finucci narrates in four engagingly written chapters the life of Vincenzo Gonzaga ‘an alpha male in search of a cause’ (p. 9). In this book Finucci skilfully avoids the Scylla and Charybdis inherent in the narration of an individual life, namely, the dangers of generalising out of a single case, and the trap of psychobiography.

In an essay entitled ‘Microhistory: Two or Three Things that I know About’, Carlo Ginzburg proposes that the best solution for reconciling micro-history and macroscopic perspective is ‘a constant back-and-forth between microhistory and macrohistory, between close-ups and extreme long shots, so as to continually thrust back into discussion the comprehensive vision of the historical process through apparent exceptions and cases of brief duration … no conclusion attained apropos a determinate sphere can be transferred automatically to a more general sphere’ (and vice-versa).Footnote ¹ By using ‘letters, doctors’ advice, reports, receipts, travelogues, as well as medical, herbal, theological, and legal publications of the period’ (p. 5), Finucci is able to use Gonzaga’s life and his numerous interactions with medical treatments, cures and methodologies within the context of much larger issues related to the body’s reproductive system, its modification through plastic surgery, and its maintenance through comfort places and pharmaceutical remedies.

Finucci tells Vincenzo Gonzaga’s life not as an end in itself, but as a means that allows her to explore up-to-date topics in early modern studies related to the notion and exploration of human body: (1) the medical tradition’s complex interaction with the political dimension, as it is expressed and formulated through the treatment of the ruler’s body, (2) the capacity of the ruler’s body to reproduce and generate heirs for the ruling family, (3) the intricate interaction between the ruler’s body and that of the spouse(s), and the latter’s ability or lack thereof to conceive, (4) the illnesses plaguing specific parts of the ruler’s body – the reproductive apparatus, the nose, the skin – and their treatment vis-à-vis early modern medical theory and practice and (5) the capacity of the ruler’s body to fight old age and physical decay through the help of both traditional and novel medical and pharmaceutical remedies found in domestic spaces as well as in exotic sites of the New World.

In the first chapter Finucci narrates the story of Gonzaga’s first marriage with Margherita Farnese, which was annulled because of the bride’s abnormal body – specifically, her hymen could not be broken and penetrated. This chapter goes beyond the salacious accounts of the repeated tests done to ascertain Vincenzo Gonzaga’s virility and ability to perform sexually, and offers an interesting view of the early modern investigation into the male and female reproductive systems, and the notions of normal and abnormal, virginity and chastity applied to Margherita Farnese’s body and more in general to the female body. In the second chapter, Finucci studies Vincenzo Gonzaga’s interaction with the famous physician and surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi, considered the initiator of reconstructive surgery and in particular of rhinoplasty. Through the figure of Tagliacozzi Finucci explores the increasing interest in rhinoplasty between the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century as a consequence of and response to facial mutilations – nose, but also ears and lips – performed as a metonymical way to ‘castrate’ the defeated, both in military and social context. The third chapter is focused on Vincenzo Gonzaga’s innumerable visits to thermal spas and baths in Italy and Europe. The larger scope of this chapter is to explore the culture of these spaces of care and relaxation and their place, in medical and social terms, in relation to the history of thermalism from the classical to the early modern period. The fourth chapter is dedicated to Vincenzo Gonzaga’s search for a cure to his sexual impotence – or to enhance his sexual performance – by sending an obscure apothecary in a rocambolesque trip to the most disparate regions of South America. In this chapter Finucci explores two important topics: Europe’s interest in the New World expressed through images of social and sexual colonisation, and the increasing enthusiasm of herbalists, physicians and scientists in observing and cataloguing new plants, insects and animals.

Finucci skilfully interweaves significant moments of Gonzaga’s personal life with important medical and scientific topics of the period, and situates them in the appropriate social, cultural and political contexts.