Medieval Bodies

Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages

Jack Hartnell

$29.99

Paperback

In stock
Ready to ship

QTY:

English

Profile
06 May 2019

History of art: Byzantine & Medieval art; History; Medieval history; History of medicine

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.

By: Jack Hartnell
Imprint: Profile
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Main
Dimensions: Height: 196mm, Width: 128mm, Spine: 24mm
Weight: 340g
ISBN: 9781781256800
ISBN 10: 1781256802
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 06 May 2019
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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

Reviews for Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages

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 * The Times *