Medieval Bodies
Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages
Published on 29. March 2018
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-1-78125-679-4 (ISBN)
Description
A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR
Dripping with blood and gold, fetishized and tortured, gateway to earthly delights and point of contact with the divine, forcibly divided and powerful even beyond death, there was no territory more contested than the body in the medieval world.
In Medieval Bodies, art historian Jack Hartnell uncovers the complex and fascinating ways in which the people of the Middle Ages thought about, explored and experienced their physical selves. In paintings and reliquaries that celebrated the - sometimes bizarre - martyrdoms of saints, the sacred dimension of the physical left its mark on their environment. In literature and politics, hearts and heads became powerful metaphors that shaped governance and society in ways that are still visible today. And doctors and natural philosophers were at the centre of a collision between centuries of sophisticated medical knowledge, and an ignorance of physiology as profound as its results were gruesome.
Like a medieval pageant, this striking and unusual history brings together medicine, art, poetry, music, politics, cultural and social history and philosophy to reveal what life was really like for the men and women who lived and died in the Middle Ages.
Medieval Bodies is published in association with Wellcome Collection.
Dripping with blood and gold, fetishized and tortured, gateway to earthly delights and point of contact with the divine, forcibly divided and powerful even beyond death, there was no territory more contested than the body in the medieval world.
In Medieval Bodies, art historian Jack Hartnell uncovers the complex and fascinating ways in which the people of the Middle Ages thought about, explored and experienced their physical selves. In paintings and reliquaries that celebrated the - sometimes bizarre - martyrdoms of saints, the sacred dimension of the physical left its mark on their environment. In literature and politics, hearts and heads became powerful metaphors that shaped governance and society in ways that are still visible today. And doctors and natural philosophers were at the centre of a collision between centuries of sophisticated medical knowledge, and an ignorance of physiology as profound as its results were gruesome.
Like a medieval pageant, this striking and unusual history brings together medicine, art, poetry, music, politics, cultural and social history and philosophy to reveal what life was really like for the men and women who lived and died in the Middle Ages.
Medieval Bodies is published in association with Wellcome Collection.
Reviews / Votes
A brilliant book ... beautifully illustrated ... A triumphant piece of historical writing -- Kathryn Hughes * Mail on Sunday * An extraordinary story and a wonderfully rich study of the Middle Ages ... Hartnell's idea of approaching the medieval worldview through the body is inspired ... This beautifully illustrated book succeeds brilliantly in bringing this much maligned period to life ... A triumph of scholarship. -- PD Smith * Guardian * One of the achievements of this splendid book is to make our world view seem more narrow and fragmented than that of the extensive period we place somewhere between the Dark Ages and the Renaissance ... at every point you'll encounter wit, learning and riveting stories. A wonderful read. -- Melanie McDonagh * Evening Standard * An erudite, wide-ranging, thoughtfully illustrated book -- Laura Freeman * Times * An ambitiously interdisciplinary study ... extravagantly illustrated ... full of lively information -- Dr G. R. Evans * Church Times * A dazzling tour through physiognomy and across time, medieval bodies are a route into understanding a richly imaginative and curious age ... is capacious and entertaining ... marvellously detailed ... Medieval Bodies lets its readers see through medieval eyes. Guided by Hartnell's expertise, we gaze upon a long-ago world. -- Rachel Moss * Times Higher * Medieval Bodies will make you smile and squirm in equal measure... This is a book about the body, but in some ways it is an exploration of the recesses of the medieval mind. -- Mary Wellesley * TLS * A thick, spicy plum pudding of a book * London Review of Books * A Sunday Times History Book of the Year 2018 * Sunday Times * Elegantly combining strands from the histories of medicine, art, and religion, this study explores how the medieval world understood and treated the human body * New Yorker *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Profile Books Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
Colour plates and colour images throughout
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 165 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
755 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78125-679-4 (9781781256794)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
02/2019
Wellcome Collection
€19.00
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
E-Book
03/2018
Wellcome Collection
€12.49
Available for download
Person
Jack Hartnell is Lecturer in Art History at University of East Anglia. He has previously held positions at Columbia University, the Courtauld Institute, the Max-Planck-Institut and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we think and feel about health. Inspired by the medical objects and curiosities collected by Henry Wellcome, it connects science, medicine, life and art. Wellcome Collection exhibitions, events and books explore a diverse range of subjects, including consciousness, forensic medicine, emotions, sexology, identity and death. wellcomecollection.org
Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we think and feel about health. Inspired by the medical objects and curiosities collected by Henry Wellcome, it connects science, medicine, life and art. Wellcome Collection exhibitions, events and books explore a diverse range of subjects, including consciousness, forensic medicine, emotions, sexology, identity and death. wellcomecollection.org