La riscoperta delle attività agonistiche nel xvi secolo: Gerolamo Mercuriale e i problemi etici connessi all’attività ginnica.

their interests. However, the prejudices of the Middle Ages towards corporeality and physical well-being constituted a serious obstacle to the resumption of interest in ancient texts that dealt with gymnastics and agonistics. Moreover, the pamphlets of the first Christian apologists against games and circus activities (ludi) made difficult to accept ethically this kind of activities in the Early Modern Age. Only during the mid-sixteenth century the development of medicine and an erudite interest in the Antiquity allowed Gerolamo Mercuriale and Petrus Faber to pay attention to these ancient disciplines and to justify the practice and the study of gymnastics and agonistic activities.