He starts with medical texts and illustrations, explores the legacy of classical Greek and Roman teachings, and surveys the general practices of medicine and healing during this period. Hartnell, a professor of the history of art and visual culture, brings together his vast knowledge of medieval art and writing to examine how European and Middle Eastern peoples of the time understood the workings of their own bodies. Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 October #2 *Starred Review* Medieval Bodies was a Sunday Times History Book of the Year when published in Britain last year, and it is now coming out in the U.S.
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". 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. Medieval Bodies guides us on a head-to-heel journey through this era's revolutionary advancements and disturbing convictions. But while this medieval medicine now seems archaic, it also made a critical contribution to modern science.
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. "With wit, wisdom, and a sharp scalpel, Jack Hartnell dissects the medieval body and offers a remedy to our preconceptions. Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-324) and index. Norton & Company, įirst 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.
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