Walking Corpses: Leprosy in Byzantium and the Medieval West
By Timothy S. Miller and John W. Nesbitt
3/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Leprosy has afflicted humans for thousands of years. It wasn’t until the twelfth century, however, that the dreaded disease entered the collective psyche of Western society, thanks to a frightening epidemic that ravaged Catholic Europe. The Church responded by constructing charitable institutions called leprosariums to treat the rapidly expanding number of victims. As important as these events were, Timothy Miller and John Nesbitt remind us that the history of leprosy in the West is incomplete without also considering the Byzantine Empire, which confronted leprosy and its effects well before the Latin West. In Walking Corpses, they offer the first account of medieval leprosy that integrates the history of East and West.
In their informative and engaging account, Miller and Nesbitt challenge a number of misperceptions and myths about medieval attitudes toward leprosy (known today as Hansen’s disease). They argue that ethical writings from the Byzantine world and from Catholic Europe never branded leprosy as punishment for sin; rather, theologians and moralists saw the disease as a mark of God’s favor on those chosen for heaven. The stimulus to ban lepers from society and ultimately to persecute them came not from Christian influence but from Germanic customary law. Leprosariums were not prisons to punish lepers but were centers of care to offer them support; some even provided both male and female residents the opportunity to govern their own communities under a form of written constitution. Informed by recent bioarchaeological research that has vastly expanded knowledge of the disease and its treatment by medieval society, Walking Corpses also includes three key Greek texts regarding leprosy (one of which has never been translated into English before).
Related to Walking Corpses
Related ebooks
Margins and Metropolis: Authority across the Byzantine Empire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomans and Barbarians Beyond the Frontiers: Archaeology, Ideology and Identities in the North Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet: Hagiography and the Problem of Islam in Medieval Europe Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5To Follow in Their Footsteps: The Crusades and Family Memory in the High Middle Ages Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Oldest Vocation: Christian Motherhood in the Medieval West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Medieval Intersections: Gender and Status in Europe in the Middle Ages Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife in a Medieval Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwo Deaths at Amphipolis: Cleon VS Brasidas in the Peloponnesian War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Arctic Fox: Francis Leopold-McClintock, Discoverer of the Fate of Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Medieval Military Medicine: From the Vikings to the High Middle Ages Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Julia Velva, A Roman Lady from York: Her Life and Times Revealed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Ages Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBurying the Dead: An Archaeological History of Burial Grounds, Graveyards & Cemeteries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShadowland: Wales 3000-1500 BC Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World's Greatest Cathedrals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuilding Anglo-Saxon England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rivalrous Masculinities: New Directions in Medieval Gender Studies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedieval Maritime Warfare Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Medieval Pirates: Pirates, Raiders And Privateers 1204-1453 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWays of Being Roman: Discourses of Identity in the Roman West Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRum Maniacs: Alcoholic Insanity in the Early American Republic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsManufactured Bodies: The Impact of Industrialisation on London Health Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Black Death and the Dancing Mania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImage and Power in the Archaeology of Early Medieval Britain: Essays in honour of Rosemary Cramp Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSearching for the Amazons Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Epidemics of the Middle Ages: The Black Death, The Dancing Mania & The Sweating Sickness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsManliness in Britain, 1760–1900: Bodies, emotion, and material culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
European History For You
Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Austen: The Complete Novels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Six Wives of Henry VIII Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Victorian Lady's Guide to Fashion and Beauty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf: The Original, Accurate, and Complete English Translation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Violent Abuse of Women: In 17th and 18th Century Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Walking Corpses
1 rating0 reviews