"A conference held in May of 2018 under the sponsorship of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies"--Page 50. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Part II. Index of persons. The art of medicine in Byzantium : the missing link / Index of persons -- Miracle and the monstrous : disability and deviant bodies in the late middle ages / Jenni Kuuliala -- Leprosy, melancholy, folly and the physiology of anguish : humoral imbalance, emotions, and psychosomatic diseases in Thomas d'Angleterre, Beroul and the Folies Tristan / Gaia Gubini -- Malady in literary texts from the medieval and early modern periods : some hypotheses on a paradoxical constellation / Joachim KuĀpper -- 'Apostumes, carbuncles, and botches' : visualizing the plague in late medieval and early modern medical treatises / Lori Jones -- Part II. The early modern period -- The role of architecture and the decorative arts in renaissance medicine / Francis Wells -- Disease in art and art(ist) in disease : reflections on paradigmatic works by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti / Manuela Gallerani -- The 'mal franzoso' between art, history and literature : Paracelsus and Della Porta / Alfonso Paolella -- The ailing artist / Roberto Fedi -- Nicolas Poussin's The Plague at Ashdod and the french disease / Efrain Kristal -- 'Yet have I in me something dangerous' : on the interplay of medicine and maleficence in Shakespeare's Hamlet / Sara Frances Burdorff -- Textures of lesions - textures of prints : Fabricius Hildanus, Frederik Ruysch, and the representation of bone lesions / Index of persons -- Index of persons.
Summary:
"Humanity has always shown a keen interest in the pathological, ranging from a morbid fascination with 'monsters' and deformities to a genuine compassion for the ill and suffering. Medieval and early modern people were no exception, expressing their emotional response to disease in both literary works and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in the plastic arts. Consequently, it becomes necessary to ask what motivated writers and artists to choose an illness or a disability and its physical and social consequences as subjects of aesthetic or intellectual expression. Were these works the result of an intrusion in their intent to faithfully reproduce nature, or do they reflect an intentional contrast against the pre-modern portrayal of spiritual ideals and, later, through the influence of the classics, the rediscovered importance and beauty of the human body? The essays contained in this volume address these questions, albeit not always directly but, rather, through an analysis of the societal reactions to the threats and challenges that essentially unopposed disease and physical impairment presented. They cover a wide range of responses, variable, of course, according to the period under scrutiny, its technological moment, and the usually fruitless attempts at treatment."--Back cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.