In The Renaissance Man and His Children, author Louis Haas delves into account books, letters, and literature of the Renaissance to examine elite Florentine male attitudes and behaviors regarding birth and infancy from 1300 to 1600. Unlike most recent studies which concern the perspectives of Renaissance mothers, this volume seeks specifically to focus on the viewpoints of fathers in relation to childbirth, childrearing and children. Haas finds that although it was a serious and even deadly business, the miracle of birth provided most elite Florentines (both male and female) with joy and a...