Leprosy in Medieval England, 1843832739, £60.00/$115.00, 436pp, 2006

Leprosy in Medieval England
Carole Rawcliffe

Set firmly in the medical, religious and cultural milieu of the European Middle Ages, this book is the first serious academic study of a disease surrounded by misconceptions and prejudices. Even specialists will be surprised to learn that most of our stereotyped ideas about the segregation of medieval lepers originated in the nineteenth century; that leprosy excited a vast range of responses, from admiration to revulsion; that in the later Middle Ages it was diagnosed readily even by laity; that a wide range of treatment was available, that medieval leper hospitals were no more austere than the monasteries on which they were modelled; that the decline of leprosy was not monocausal but implied a complex web of factors - medical, environmental, social and legal. Carole Rawcliffe writes with consummate skill, subtlety and rigour; her book will change forever the image of the medieval leper.

CAROLE RAWCLIFFE is Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia.

DETAILS
35 b/w illustrations
6 line illustrations
440 pages
Size: 23.4 x 15.6 cm
10 digit ISBN: 1843832739
13 digit ISBN: 9781843832737
Binding: Hardback
First published: 19/Oct/2006
Price: 115.00 USD / 60.00 GBP
Imprint: Boydell Press
Subject: Medieval History

BIC class: GTS

STATUS: Available
Details updated on 07/10/2008

Contents

1		Creating the medieval leper: some myths and misunderstandings
2		The body and the soul: ideas about causation
3		The sick and the healthy: reactions to suffering
4		Priests and physicians: the business of diagnosis
5		Medicine and surgery: the battle against disease
6		A Disease appart? The impact of segregation
7		Life in the medieval leper house

Reviews
A comprehensive and detailed history. [...] A major contribution to the study of medieval society, particularly its values and perceptions. SOUTHERN HISTORY SOCIETY
It is fair to say that Carole Rawcliffe has written the definitive study of leprosy in medieval England. Comprising more than 350 pages of text with illustrations, this meticulously researched work explores the topic from every imaginable angle by exploiting an impressive array of evidence. JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES
Provides a much-needed corrective to the general understanding of how medieval society viewed leprosy and treated its victims. SOCIAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
In this comprehensive, thoughtfully argued, compelling, fascinating, rigorous and extensively researched work, Carole Rawcliffe sets out to disabuse the reader of all the most dearly-held modern misconceptions of the medieval leper, and succeeds. [...] A compassionate, compelling, and important model for (re)writing the history of the disease. THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW An important book, written with a great deal of erudition. THE RICARDIAN, XVIII, 2008

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