What sports did people of the Renaissance in Italy play?

Question

What sports did the people who live in the Italian peninsula play during the Renaissance?

Answer 1

horse racing : The "Palio", Sienna

football/soccer : "Calcio Fiorentino", Florence

"By the time of the Renaissance, sports had become entirely secular, but in the minds of the Czech educator John Amos Comenius and other humanists, a concern for physical education on what were thought to be classic models overshadowed the competitive aspects of sports. Indeed, 15th- and 16th-century elites perferred dances to sports and delighted in geometric patterns of movement. The ballet developed in France during this period. Horses were trained to graceful movement rather than bred for speed. French and Italian fencers like the famed Girard Thibault, whose L'Accademie de l'espee appeared in 1628, thought of their activity more as an art form than as a combat. Northern Europeans emulated them. Humanistically inclined Englishmen and Germans admired the cultivated Florentine game of calcio ("kick"), a form of football that stressed the good looks and elegant attire of the players."

"Sports : Sports in the Renaissance", Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000

"Arm wrestling, boxing, track and field, were all carried through the Middle Ages by peasants in scattered villages throughout Europe."

"The Italian and French courts were refining sword-play from the battlefield hack-and-slash, into something more refined, with rules and manners that would eventually become modern fencing. Folks living in towns and villages took an increasing interest in the children's games played with inflated pig bladders, or with sticks and balls of rags, forming teams to play against neighboring towns, and guilds of wool merchants competing against weavers and tailors. Still, athletics and contests continued as a mostly local phenomenon, played for fun and enjoyed by the people who played, but not really watched by spectators until the early nineteenth century."

"Sports in the Renaissance", Alena K Shumway : http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art43344.asp

"In contrast, the game of Calcio Fiorentino, in Florence, Italy, was originally reserved for the aristocracy."

"History of sport" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sport#Origins_of_modern_sports_in_Medieval_Europe

Answer 2

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What sports did people of the Renaissance in Italy play?

Answer 3

The country we call Italy did not exist during the Renaissance. The "Italy" of old was a collection of city-states much like ancient Greece. It was not until Victor Emmanuel instituted unification reforms that Italy took on the identity we know today.

Answer 4

Believe it or not, handball was very popular, especially in France (They called it Tennis, however). Your question is a little vague, in that you do not clarify as to social class or region. "The Renaissance" was not a single time or place, but occurred in different ways in different parts of Europe (and the Americas).