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

The most frustrating thing about books like this is that I forget most of what I’ve read almost as soon as I have finished the chapter. And this wonderful book is packed with fascinating details that I do so much want to remember! Jack Hartnell is an art historian so here he is writing about medieval bodies as the people themselves saw them and lived in them, and how we can see evidence of this in the contemporary art of the times. The book is divided into chapters about the various areas of the body, such as head, feet, stomach and so forth. Each chapter contains wonderful anecdotes (Jack Hartnell understands the importance of story telling to capture an audience), medical opinions and treatments of the time, and spin offs – in the chapter about feet for example, we look at travel and cartography. I enjoyed some aspects of this book so much that I sent emails to long suffering friends about characters like Roland the Farter, a member of Henry II’s court, employed for his skills in jumping, whistling and farting all at the same time. Because this is fundamentally a serious book though, and absolutely packed with information, it requires some concentration to read. Not for the beach but definitely for a rainy day on the couch!