Recreation in the Renaissance: Attitudes Towards Leisure and Pastimes in European Culture, C.1425-1675In Renaissance Europe, when 'leisure classes' used social gathering to define civility and the commercialization of leisure was beginning, the human need for recreation became a cultural topos. The book explores the vocabulary of play and games; the spectrum of leisure activities, often gender specific or appropriate to particular social groups; the medical discourse on the preservation of health, where amusements were assessed as physical exercise;