Medieval Bodies, Jack Hartnell
Medieval Bodies, Jack Hartnell
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Medieval Bodies
Life and Death in the Middle Ages

Author: Jack Hartnell

Narrator: Michael Page

Unabridged: 8 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/12/2019


Synopsis

Just like us, medieval men and women worried about growing old, got blisters and indigestion, fell in love, and had children. And yet their lives were full of miraculous and richly metaphorical experiences radically different from our own, unfolding in a world where deadly wounds might be healed overnight by divine intervention, or where the heart of a king, plucked from his corpse, could be held aloft as a powerful symbol of political rule.

In this witty and unusual history, Jack Hartnell uncovers the fascinating ways in which people thought about, explored, and experienced their physical selves in the Middle Ages, from Constantinople to Cairo and Canterbury. Unfolding like a medieval pageant, and filled with saints, soldiers, caliphs, queens, monks and monstrous beasts, it throws light on the medieval body from head to toe—revealing the surprisingly sophisticated medical knowledge of the time.

Bringing together medicine, art, music, politics, philosophy, religion, and social history, there is no better guide to what life was really like for the men and women who lived and died in the Middle Ages. Perfumed and decorated with gold, fetishized or tortured, powerful even beyond death, these medieval bodies are not passive and buried away; they can still teach us what it means to be human.


About Jack Hartnell

Jack Hartnell is a Lecturer in Art History at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. He previously held positions at Columbia University, the Courtauld Institute, the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Richard on January 07, 2020

In the category of book as physical object this would gain 5 stars. Beautifully presented and well illustrated, this is a lovely object. The writing is to a high standard, erudite and mostly interesting. Structured around several themes - all taken from parts of the body like heart, hands and feet,......more

Goodreads review by Ilana (illi69) on April 23, 2021

4.5 — I gobbled this book up in no time. If you, like me are interested in history in general and the medieval period in particular, you may enjoy this book a lot. The book is organized as a tour of the human body from head to foot by way of describing the lives, beliefs, sciences, art and much more......more

Goodreads review by Maru on February 11, 2021

Subscription only review in LRB, but sounds a really interesting book: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Daisy on April 02, 2025

I do love a niche interest book and this is certainly one of those. A beautifully illustrated book that explores how the people of the medieval world understood the mechanics of their bodies; what they looked like internally, what the function of each organ was, how diseases spread and the cures for......more

Goodreads review by Sam on May 18, 2019

If you want an introductory survey to the period that also manages to dive into the minutiae of things, this is your book.......more