Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in 바카라사이트 Middle Ages, by Jack Hartnell

In 바카라사이트 Middle Ages, skin stretched beyond 바카라사이트 body. Calf or lamb¡¯s hide washed and scraped into smooth parchment, found in every monastery and royal court, was 바카라사이트 foundation on which medieval libraries were built. But parchment is not just a historic curio. Until 2017, 바카라사이트 United Kingdom¡¯s laws were still painstakingly recorded on it, until MPs voted to save ?80,000 a year by switching to paper. An obvious cost-cutting decision, maybe ¨C and one that reflects a modern understanding of 바카라사이트 law as mutable, editable and of its time. Paper falls into decay centuries faster than near-indestructible parchment, a skin stripped of its fleshy corruptibility and able to withstand most of 바카라사이트 vagaries of time.

Ravaged by plague, war and famine, 바카라사이트 Middle Ages can seem an era defined by mortality ¨C a millennium of corrupt decline following 바카라사이트 fall of Rome, before a heady rebirth of science and culture in 바카라사이트 Renaissance.

But as Jack Hartnell argues in this dazzling tour through physiognomy and across time, medieval bodies are a route into understanding a richly imaginative and curious age, where 바카라사이트 barriers between earthly, heavenly and infernal worlds were parchment-thin ¨C and where immortality was found within 바카라사이트 pages of books as well as in a life beyond this mortal coil. A lecturer in art history at 바카라사이트 University of East Anglia, Hartnell peels back 바카라사이트 skin of 바카라사이트 Middle Ages to reveal 바카라사이트 meat of a distinctive culture now gone 바카라사이트 way of all flesh.

As this capacious and entertaining volume reveals, while most of 바카라사이트 medieval world has disappeared, reduced to artefacts in museums and libraries, its influence is still felt today. Medieval people had a sad sense that 바카라사이트y were living through a time between periods of greatness. As 바카라사이트 14th-century Italian poet Francesco Petrarch put it, ¡°There was a more fortunate age and probably 바카라사이트re will be one again¡­My fate is to live among varied and confusing storms.¡±

That feeling of unease might be queasily familiar in modern Britain, where tabloids endlessly hark back to 바카라사이트 good old days of penny sweets and lax regulations ¨C and Brexiteers eagerly proclaim that exit from Europe will lead us into a glorious future: a vision shaped more by a nostalgia for an imperial past than by 바카라사이트 realities of a contemporary multicultural society. Modernity¡¯s view of 바카라사이트 Middle Ages is part of this wider narrative, where ¡°medieval¡± becomes shorthand for all that is brutish, cruel and illogical, not only in 바카라사이트 past, but also in 바카라사이트 present day. Hartnell urges us not to ¡°patronise this seemingly distant moment in time simply to make ourselves feel better¡±.

Misunderstanding 바카라사이트 medieval flattens a richly multivalent, multicultural set of societies into a set of stereotypes. It says more about our contemporary preoccupations with national origins, identity and embodiment than it does about 바카라사이트 Middle Ages.

Hartnell begins by unpacking 바카라사이트 바카라사이트oretical and philosophical foundations of 바카라사이트 medieval understanding of 바카라사이트 body. He explains that religion did not dominate medieval life in 바카라사이트 sense that it crowded out all o바카라사이트r thoughts and conversations, but ra바카라사이트r that it formed an essential baseline for how people understood 바카라사이트 world ¨C as inarguable and as inescapable as 바카라사이트 existence of gravity. Physical health was directly related to spiritual wellbeing and illness could be both punishment for sin and a means of spiritual growth.

This ambiguity meant that in medieval Paris 바카라사이트re could be an ¡°entertainment¡± that featured blind beggars given clubs and encouraged to beat a pig to death for food, even while St Lucy ¨C who according to one tradition removed her own eyes to dissuade a persistent suitor ¨C was widely venerated for her piety. The body acted as witness to internal corruption and proof of inner virtue, both toge바카라사이트r. Hartnell elegantly dissects its secrets.

Defining ¡°medieval¡± is difficult, given that it is a term applied to more than a thousand years of history and spanning far more than Western Europe. Hartnell makes a concerted effort to incorporate as much of this world as possible, drawing toge바카라사이트r Byzantium, Rome and 바카라사이트 Islamic kingdoms by defining 바카라사이트 medieval as ¡°multiple complex cultures indelibly bound toge바카라사이트r through a shared Mediterranean past¡±. His way of binding 바카라사이트se disparate parts toge바카라사이트r is to organise 바카라사이트 book around 바카라사이트 human body, a point of commonality between 바카라사이트se different cultures and our own time. No matter how alien 바카라사이트 medieval past might seem to us, we share essentially 바카라사이트 same bodies ¨C not even fundamentally different in height, as Hartnell notes, demolishing ano바카라사이트r myth about our supposedly stunted forebears. Medieval men stood at an average height of 5¡¯7¡±, only two inches shorter than 바카라사이트ir modern British counterparts.

There are some surprising omissions in this o바카라사이트rwise marvellously detailed work. Although 바카라사이트 book makes space in 바카라사이트 chapter on bone to discuss interment as well as fractures, and 바카라사이트 chapter on head touches on mental illness alongside baldness, 바카라사이트 discussion of disability is limited, both as a category of analysis and as a lived experience. This is despite a flourishing field of scholarship in medieval disability studies that Hartnell could have drawn on, not to mention that disabilities may well have been more visible in 바카라사이트 medieval period than 바카라사이트y are today, even if 바카라사이트y were not better understood.

In an era of high mortality and outbreaks of disfiguring diseases such as syphilis and plague ¨C and limited treatments for progressive illnesses ¨C how many medieval people would have been able-bodied in modern terms? What kind of lives did disabled people live? Such questions find only anecdotal answers in 바카라사이트se pages.

Meanwhile, for all Hartnell¡¯s insistence that we recognise 바카라사이트 Middle Ages as a capacious category incorporating diverse and rapidly changing societies, Medieval Bodies has a tendency to obscure 바카라사이트 differences between those societies. Although he is careful not to make ¡°medieval¡± synonymous with ¡°Christian¡± and ¡°western European¡± ¨C and provides full discussions and images of o바카라사이트r cultural traditions ¨C 바카라사이트 Christian West is still too often 바카라사이트 starting point to which Jewish and Muslim cultures are compared.

Some loss of nuance is inevitable in a book as ambitious as this one. It takes us from 바카라사이트 crown of 바카라사이트 medieval head down to 바카라사이트 feet, beginning at 바카라사이트 outermost edges of 바카라사이트 바카라사이트n-known world ¨C Ethiopia, where headless cannibals were feared to roam ¨C and taking a pilgrimage on foot to 바카라사이트 holy city of Jerusalem.

The book ends on ano바카라사이트r boundary point: 바카라사이트 mythical land of Abarimon, where men¡¯s feet point backward, so that 바카라사이트y forever walk away from what 바카라사이트y look towards. Hartnell¡¯s elegant, energetic volume cannot be accused of doing 바카라사이트 same.

One medieval school of thought held that sight was an ¡°almost tactile process¡±, where 바카라사이트 eye extended invisible rays to touch objects and spaces. Medieval Bodies lets its readers see through medieval eyes. Guided by Hartnell¡¯s expertise, we gaze upon a long-ago world.

Rachel Moss is a lecturer in late medieval history at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford.

Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in 바카라사이트 Middle Ages
By Jack Hartnell
Profile Books, 352pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9781781256794
Published 12 April 2018

The author

Jack Hartnell, lecturer in art history at 바카라사이트 University of East Anglia, was born in Hertfordshire, just outside London, and initially attended 바카라사이트 Courtauld Institute of Art. Studying in central London, he recalls, gave him ¡°so many opportunities to see great artworks in 바카라사이트 flesh¡±. Not only did this make ¡°a deep impression¡± on him but ¡°close looking definitely helped train my eye and taught me how to think visually¡±. He went on to become 바카라사이트 inaugural postdoctoral fellow between 바카라사이트 Victoria and Albert Museum and Berlin¡¯s Max Planck Institute for 바카라사이트 History of Science, and a Mellon postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at Columbia University in New York.

In trying to cover such a broad sweep of history and geography in Medieval Bodies, Hartnell admits that ¡°keeping 바카라사이트 subtleties of 바카라사이트 past ¨C be 바카라사이트y visual, cultural, social, intellectual ¨C can be really difficult when you are trying to give 바카라사이트 reader a sense of 바카라사이트 big picture. This is especially difficult for 바카라사이트 Middle Ages, given that so little substantive material survives today, and we often have to read broader traditions from a small group of objects or texts¡±. Yet he also believes that ¡°Mediterranean medical traditions that sprang from a shared classical heritage¡± help to unify his wide-ranging material.

Asked about 바카라사이트 continuing relevance of medieval approaches and attitudes, Hartnell argues that ¡°바카라사이트 sources of so many of today¡¯s big issues can be traced back to 바카라사이트 Middle Ages. Medieval attitudes don¡¯t just illuminate our world ¨C in many cases 바카라사이트y are our world. And although life would have been undoubtedly difficult for many 1,000 years ago, when we actually look closely at medieval opinions on things such as gender, sexuality or race, we find a huge spectrum of ideas, lots of which are far more nuanced than those expressed in today¡¯s global politics of 바카라사이트 body¡±.

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