Catherine Atkinson

Invest 10 minutes in yourself...and change up to a better life. I promise! You won't miss a thing - including your old waistline! As Delia says, '...just because you want to eliminate fat...doesn't mean you have to eat foods that are boring...'. Firstly I focused on the flavours. Then I made it low fat. You can entertain friends with these quick recipes and be sure they won't guess they are eating low fat. Enjoy good traditional food here and avoid health problems like heart disease, artery problems and excess weight. All you have to do is make the change to be rewarded! You will lose weight and regain your figure. This healthier diet will take years off you! Enjoy my weekly plan of hearty main courses and desserts to get you started. Everything is quick and easy. Simply take the first step and you'll never look back. Eat up, trim down and get healthy. Put youth back into your skin and gloss to your hair. How good is that!

Polydore Vergil of Urbino (ca.1470-1555) fired his readers' imagination with his encyclopaedic book "On the inventors of all things" ( De inventoribus rerum 1499). His account of the manifold origins of sciences, crafts and social institutions is a praise of man's inventive genius and a prototypical cultural history. "Polydorus" was a household name for several centuries. Erasmus envied his friend the book's success, Rabelais heaped scorn on it, Catholic censors put it on the index, while Protestants were fascinated with "that papist" work. In this first in-depth study of the Renaissance 'bestseller', Catherine Atkinson examines not only the Italian humanist's bona fide (mostly ancient) inventors, in books I-III, she enquires into the neglected and misunderstood, yet equally important, books IV-VIII (1521). This early modern text, written on the eve of the Reformation, is devoted to the highly controversial topic of the 'invention' of ecclesiastical institutions. The priest and humanist Vergil, who during his 50 years in England rose in the church hierarchy, is shown to be an acute observer of contemporary religious practice. He employs the inventor question ("who was the first to do this?") as an instrument of historiography and by comparing medieval church rites and institutions with religious practice of antiquity, implicitly questions the singularity of the Christian church.

The starting-point for this study of messer Bernardo, father of the statesman and humanist Niccolo Machiavelli, is the diary he wrote over a period of thirteen years (1474-1487). Drawing upon many further sources, including Bernardo's will, tax records and genealogies, the first in-depth investigation of the libro di ricordi reconstructs a panorama of everyday life during a fascinating period of the history of Florence. Topics explored include Machiavelli family history, household economy, wedding rites and Bernardo's interest in books and printing. This study is invaluable for an understanding of Niccolo's intellectual and family background. Four case-studies examine how messer Bernardo dealt with disputes and reveal the medieval roots of behaviour and mentality in Quattrocento Florence.