Living with Disfigurement in Early Medieval Europe

by Patricia E. Skinner

This book is open access under a CC-BY 4.0 license.

This book examines social and medical responses to the disfigured face in early medieval Europe, arguing that the study of head and facial injuries can offer a new contribution to the history of early medieval medicine and culture, as well as exploring the language of violence and social interactions. Despite the prevalence of warfare and conflict in early medieval society, and a veritable industry of medieval historians studying it, there has in fact been very little attention paid to the subject of head wounds and facial damage in the course of war and/or punitive justice. The impact of acquired disfigurement for the individual, and for her or his family and community is barely registered, and only recently has there been any attempt to explore the question of how damaged tissue and bone might be treated medically or surgically. In the wake of new work on disability and the emotions in the medieval period, this study documents how acquired disfigurement is recorded across different geographical and chronological contexts in the period.

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Genres: History, Medieval, Disability, Nonfiction, Research, Medieval History

292 pages, Hardcover

Published December 22, 2016

Reviews

[A.E. Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is concerned with acquired facial disfigurement in early medieval Europe, primarily as these disfigurements relate to the justice system (inflicted or compensated by). With limited sources, there is limited social history that can be conducted in this area for this time period, and the medical evidence was only reviewed in one chapter. Most of the arguments the author makes are convincing, based on the evidence. One big takeaway was that, given the close communities most people lived in, disfigurements were viewed more through a lens of how they were acquired than by their physical appearance.

The book is available online as a PDF.