The Medieval Economy of Salvation : Charity, Commerce, and the Rise of the Hospital / Adam J. Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, Adam Jeffrey, 1973- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hospitals, Medieval--France--Champagne-Ardenne--History.

Hospitals, Medieval.

Charities--France--Champagne-Ardenne--History--To 1500.

Charities.

Charity--Religious aspects--Christianity--History--To 1500.

Charity.

Medical economics--France--Champagne-Ardenne--History--To 1500.

Medical economics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (336 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In The Medieval Economy of Salvation, Adam J. Davis shows how the burgeoning commercial economy of western Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, alongside an emerging culture of Christian charity, led to the establishment of hundreds of hospitals and leper houses. Focusing on the county of Champagne, he looks at the ways in which charitable organizations and individuals-townspeople, merchants, aristocrats, and ecclesiastics-saw in these new institutions a means of infusing charitable giving and service with new social significance and heightened expectations of spiritual rewards.Hospitals served as visible symbols of piety and, as a result, were popular objects of benefaction. They also presented lay women and men with new penitential opportunities to personally perform the works of mercy, which many embraced as a way to earn salvation. At the same time, these establishments served a variety of functions beyond caring for the sick and the poor; as benefactors donated lands and money to them, hospitals became increasingly central to local economies, supplying loans, distributing food, and acting as landlords. In tracing the rise of the medieval hospital during a period of intense urbanization and the transition from a gift economy to a commercial one, Davis makes clear how embedded this charitable institution was in the wider social, cultural, religious, and economic fabric of medieval life.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

A Note on Monies and Measures

Introduction: A Charitable Revolution in an Age of Commerce

1. Medieval Understandings of Charity: From Penance to Commerce

2. The Creation of a Charitable Landscape

3. Hospital Patrons and Social Networks

4. Managing a Hospital's Property

5. "In Service of the Poor": Hospital Personnel in Pursuit of Security

6. The Sick Poor and the Economy of Care

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9781501755248

1501755242

9781501742118

1501742116

OCLC:

1088600997

Access Restriction:

Unrestricted online access