Walking Corpses : Leprosy in Byzantium and the Medieval West / Timothy S. Miller, John W. Nesbitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miller, Timothy S., author.

Nesbitt, John W., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Leprosy--Europe--History--To 1500.

Leprosy.

Leprosy--Byzantine Empire--History--To 1500.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (261 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Leprosy has afflicted humans for thousands of years. It wasn't until the twelfth century, however, that the dreaded disease entered the collective psyche of Western society, thanks to a frightening epidemic that ravaged Catholic Europe. The Church responded by constructing charitable institutions called leprosariums to treat the rapidly expanding number of victims. As important as these events were, Timothy Miller and John Nesbitt remind us that the history of leprosy in the West is incomplete without also considering the Byzantine Empire, which confronted leprosy and its effects well before the Latin West. In Walking Corpses, they offer the first account of medieval leprosy that integrates the history of East and West.In their informative and engaging account, Miller and Nesbitt challenge a number of misperceptions and myths about medieval attitudes toward leprosy (known today as Hansen's disease). They argue that ethical writings from the Byzantine world and from Catholic Europe never branded leprosy as punishment for sin; rather, theologians and moralists saw the disease as a mark of God's favor on those chosen for heaven. The stimulus to ban lepers from society and ultimately to persecute them came not from Christian influence but from Germanic customary law. Leprosariums were not prisons to punish lepers but were centers of care to offer them support; some even provided both male and female residents the opportunity to govern their own communities under a form of written constitution. Informed by recent bioarchaeological research that has vastly expanded knowledge of the disease and its treatment by medieval society, Walking Corpses also includes three key Greek texts regarding leprosy (one of which has never been translated into English before).

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Ancient World

2. Leprosy in the Byzantine Empire

3. Byzantine Medicine

4. Byzantine Leprosariums

5. Leprosy in the Latin West

6. Leprosariums in the Latin West

7. The Knights of Lazarus

Conclusion

Appendix 1. Aretaios of Cappadocia, On Acute and Chronic Diseases (Books IV.13 and VIII.13)

Appendix 2. Gregory of Nyssa's Oration, Regarding the Words "As much as you have done for one of these, you have done for me" (Matt. 25:40)

Appendix 3. Selection from The Funeral Oration in Praise of Saint John Chrysostom (Chapters 60.17 to 67.1)

List of Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-218) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780801470769

0801470765

9780801470776

0801470773

OCLC:

878405990