Medieval bodies : life, death and art in the Middle Ages /
With wit, wisdom and a sharp scalpel, Jack Hartnell dissects the medieval body and offers a remedy to our preconceptions. Medieval beliefs about the body were drastically different from ours today. Hair was thought to be a condensation of fumes emitted from the pores, ideas were supposedly committed...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
W.W. Norton & Company,
[2018]
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| Edition: | First American edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | With wit, wisdom and a sharp scalpel, Jack Hartnell dissects the medieval body and offers a remedy to our preconceptions. Medieval beliefs about the body were drastically different from ours today. Hair was thought to be a condensation of fumes emitted from the pores, ideas were supposedly committed to memory by being directly imprinted on the brain and the womb of a goat was believed to function as a contraceptive. But while this medieval medicine now seems archaic, it also made a critical contribution to modern science. Medieval Bodies guides us on a head-to-heel journey through this era's revolutionary advancements and disturbing convictions. We learn about the surgeons who dissected a living man's stomach, then sewed him up again, about the geographers who delineated racial groups by skin color and about the practice of fasting to gain spiritual renown. Encompassing medicine and mysticism, politics and art, and complete with vivid, full-color illustrations, Medieval Bodies shows us how it felt to live and die a thousand years ago. |
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| Item Description: | First published by Profile Books in partnership with Wellcome Collection in the UK in 2018 under the title Medieval Bodies : Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages. |
| Physical Description: | 346 pages : chiefly color illustrations ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-324) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781324002161 1324002166 |