![]() ![]() Hartnell’s book isn’t just about the peculiarities of the medical arts in the Middle Ages. Indeed, the seeds of modern science can often be found amid what initially appears to be extremely outdated nonsense. ![]() ![]() (Some of this humor was even intentional in forgetting that medieval people were simply people, we may find ourselves surprised to discover a sense of humor not far removed from our own when we encounter, for example, an illustration of a penis tree in the margins of a French manuscript.) Their bizarre logic seems especially evident when presented alongside the technology that was available then. While capturing the humor inherent in looking so far back in time, Hartnell points to the common humanity between our modern selves and the men (and women!) who left behind these writings. It’s easy to laugh at the Middle Ages, their beliefs and medical practices-easy, too, to forget that the people who lived then were people just like us. Enchanted, I stopped to admire it and read the accompanying caption: “A wheel of urine sprouting from a tree.” But of course. Perusing the pages of Jack Hartnell’s gloriously illustrated Medieval Bodies: Life and Death in the Middle Ages, my eye caught on an elegant depiction of a tree, reproduced from a 15th-century German manuscript and surrounded by pear-shaped vials and delicate writing. ![]()
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