At its best it is very good, but too often it drifts to this randomness. It's all intelligent stuff, but nevertheless turns what could have been a really interesting book, into a mildly interesting random collection of information about medieval times. I'm not sure if this is because there was not much more to say on the subject of feet or it's just poor editing. Structured around several themes - all taken from parts of the body like heart, hands and feet, the book then describes medieval attitudes, beliefs and behaviours to these parts of the body - or at least that what it claims to do.Īt times it does this well, but too often the author uses the chapter title as an excuse for a rambling exploration of subjects only tenuously connected with the book or chapter title - hence from feet we go to travel and from travel to maps. The writing is to a high standard, erudite and mostly interesting. Beautifully presented and well illustrated, this is a lovely object. Medieval Bodies is published in association with Wellcome Collection.In the category of book as physical object this would gain 5 stars. 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 in the process.īringing together medicine, art, music, politics, philosophy 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.

In this richly-illustrated 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. And yet their lives were full of miraculous and richly metaphorical experiences radically different to our own, unfolding in a world where deadly wounds might be healed overnight by divine intervention, or the heart of a king, plucked from his corpse, could be held aloft as a powerful symbol of political rule. Just like us, medieval men and women worried about growing old, got blisters and indigestion, fell in love and had children. makes the past at once familiar, exotic and thrilling.' Dominic Sandbrook Click here to purchase from Rakuten Kobo A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR

Medieval bodies book