Bodily and Spiritual Hygiene in Medieval and Early Modern Literature: Explorations of Textual Presentations of Filth and Water

by Albrecht Classen (Editor)

Overview

While most people today take hygiene and medicine for granted, they both have had their own history. We can gain deep insights into the pre-modern world by studying its health-care system, its approaches to medicine, and concept of hygiene. Already the early Middle Ages witnessed great interest in bathing (hot and cold), swimming, and good personal hygiene. Medical activities grew over time, but even early medieval monks were already great experts in treating the sick. The contributions examine literary, medical, historical texts and images and probe the information we can glean from them. The interdisciplinary approach of this volume makes it possible to view this large field in a complex and diversified manner, taking into account both early medieval and early modern treatises on medicine, water, bathing, and health. Such a cultural-historical perspective creates a most valuable bridge connecting literary and scientific documents under the umbrella of the history of mentality and history of everyday life. The volume does not aim at idealizing the past, but it definitely intends to deconstruct modern myths about the 'dirty' and 'unhealthy' Middle Ages and early modern age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110523294
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	03/20/2017
Series:	Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture , #19
Pages:	622
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, USA.

Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Bathing, Health Care, Medicine, and Water in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age Albrecht Classen 1

Treating the Condition of 'Evil' in the Anglo-Saxon Herbals Warren Tormey 88

Bald's Leechbook and the Construction of Male Health in Anglo-Saxon England Daniel F. Pigg 114

The Necessitas Naturae and Monastic Hygiene Belle S. Tuten 129

Caring for the Body and Soul with Water: Guerric of Igny's Fourth Sermon on the Epiphany, Godfrey of Saint-Victor's Fons Phitosophiae, and Peter of Celle's Letters James L. Smith 148

Affected yet Untouched: Spatial Barriers and the Neurobehavioral Impact on Lepers Living with Limited Interpersonal Touch in the Middle Ages Erin S. Lynch 171

Elemental Well-Being: Water and Its Attributes in Selected Writings of Hildegard of Bingen and Georgius Agricola Debra L. Stoudt 193

Potiones ad sanandum: Text as Remedy in a Medieval Latin Bestiary Cynthia White 221

Troubled Waters: Bathing and Illicit Relations in Marie de France's "Equitan" and in Flamenca Rosa A. Perez 275

The Liquids in Gottfried's Tristan und Isolde: Focus of Nature and Locus of illness and Healing Christopher R. Clason 293

The Ambiguous Effects of Water and Oil in Middle English Romance: Acknowledged and Ignored Jean E. Jost 331

Lodestone and Litmus Test: Aqueous Presentations of Emotional Experience in Medieval and Renaissance literature Anne Scott 357

The Sonnet about Women who Marry in Old Age: Filth, Misogyny, and Depravity Fabian Alfie 389

Si Odore Solo Locus Pestilentiosus Fiat: Private Property, Public Health and Environmental Hygiene - Advantages of the English Common Law of Nuisance over the Corpus Juris Civilis Scott L. Taylor 407

Mens Sana in Corpore Sanus: Water, Wellness, and Cleanliness in Five Fifteenth-Century Medical Manuals Sarah Gordon 424

Water, Environment, and Dietetic Rules in Bohemian Sources of the Early Modern Times David Tomícek 441

The 'Dirty Middle Ages': Bathing and Cleanliness in the Middle Ages. With an Emphasis on Medieval German Courtly Romances, Early Modern Novels, and Art History: Another Myth-Buster Albrecht Classen 458

The Field Surgery Manual Which Became a Medical Commonplace Book: Hans von Gersdorff's Feldtbuch der Wundarzney (1517) Translated into Low German Chiara Benati 501

The Role of Therapeutic Bathing in the Sixteenth Century and Its Contemporary Scientific Explanations Thomas G. Benedek 528

Testing the Waters: Early Modern Studies Thomas Willard 568

List of Contributors 599

Index 605