ABSTRACT
Wounds were a potent signifier reaching across all aspects of life in Europe in the middle ages, and their representation, perception and treatment is the focus of this volume. Following a survey of the history of medical wound treatment in the middle ages, paired chapters explore key themes situating wounds within the context of religious belief, writing on medicine, status and identity, and surgical practice. The final chapter reviews the history of medieval wounding through the modern imagination. Adopting an innovative approach to the subject, this book will appeal to all those interested in how past societies regarded health, disease and healing and will improve knowledge of not only the practice of medicine in the past, but also of the ethical, religious and cultural dimensions structuring that practice.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|25 pages
A Medical Overview
part II|46 pages
Miraculous Wounds and Miraculous Healing
part III|42 pages
The Broken Body and the Broken Soul
part IV|44 pages
Wounds as Signifiers for Romance Man and Civil Man
part V|39 pages
Wound Surgery in the Fourteenth Century
part VI|34 pages
the Modern Imagination