Bodies of Knowledge

As different in approach and range as they undoubtedly are, these four books all share an interest in medieval representational practices out of which complex ideas and theories concerning bodies — indeed, out of which different bodies — emerge. Katharine Park’s Secrets of Women is a wonderfully rich study of anatomy and dissection in northern Italy as it developed from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century; Carole Rawcliffe’s Leprosy in Medieval England offers a dense and detailed examination of the treatment and theories surrounding leprosy in late medieval England; Nicola McDonald’s wide-ranging collection of essays explores a plethora of medieval obscenities and related issues; and Patrizia Bettella’s The Ugly Woman examines the role of this reviled figure in Italian poetry from the Middle Ages to the Baroque.