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Disability in Medieval Europe
This impressive volume presents a thorough examination of all aspects of physical impairment and disability in medieval Europe. Examining a popular era that is of great interest to many historians and researchers, Irene Metzler presents a theoretical framework of disability and explores key areas such as:
medieval theoretical concepts theology and natural philosophy notions of the physical body medical theory and practice.
Bringing into play the modern day implications of medieval thought on the issue, this is a fascinating and informative addition to the research studies of medieval history, history of medicine and disability studies scholars the English-speaking world over.
medieval theoretical concepts theology and natural philosophy notions of the physical body medical theory and practice.
Bringing into play the modern day implications of medieval thought on the issue, this is a fascinating and informative addition to the research studies of medieval history, history of medicine and disability studies scholars the English-speaking world over.
364 pages, Paperback
First published December 6, 2005
About the author
Irina Metzler
7 books5 followersDr Metzler is a Research Fellow in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Swanswa, Wales.
Metzler studied at Reading University for all three academic qualifications, from BA via MA to a PhD thesis on disability in the Middle Ages (kindly supported by a bursary from the Department of History at Reading). After that she was honorary research fellow at the university of Bristol, first in the Department of History, then three years in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, which were followed by an honorary research fellowship at Swansea's Centre for Medieval and Modern Research, MEMO. After she secured a Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship (2012-14) and subsequently a Wellcome Trust University Award (2014-19), Irina became a full-time research member of staff at Swansea. Her interests lie primarily in physical, sensory and intellectual disability in the Middle Ages, but also in perceptions of the natural world in medieval culture, medieval travel and exploration, with knowledge of geography and anthropology. She is also engaged with the knowledge economy in medieval and modern times, interactions between history of ideas and history of education, and concepts of heritage in the past.
Metzler studied at Reading University for all three academic qualifications, from BA via MA to a PhD thesis on disability in the Middle Ages (kindly supported by a bursary from the Department of History at Reading). After that she was honorary research fellow at the university of Bristol, first in the Department of History, then three years in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, which were followed by an honorary research fellowship at Swansea's Centre for Medieval and Modern Research, MEMO. After she secured a Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship (2012-14) and subsequently a Wellcome Trust University Award (2014-19), Irina became a full-time research member of staff at Swansea. Her interests lie primarily in physical, sensory and intellectual disability in the Middle Ages, but also in perceptions of the natural world in medieval culture, medieval travel and exploration, with knowledge of geography and anthropology. She is also engaged with the knowledge economy in medieval and modern times, interactions between history of ideas and history of education, and concepts of heritage in the past.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 23, 2024
It is a truly amazing book for anyone working within medieval studies, shedding new light on old concepts, as well as bringing new research to the fore. I appreciated the summary sections at the end of each main chapter since there is a lot of information to process, so the good structure throughout helped to break this down and then summarise everything in my head. A great bibliography to be able to continue research elsewhere as well.
January 26, 2018
Research of Middle Ages has been mainly silent about disability. Disability studies, on the other hand, concentrate pretty much on the modern times. Ideas about disability in the Middle Ages have been quite vague and based on general prejudices about the era. For example, it has been said that disabled children were killed when born. That is not the case - and would not be very logical since the impairment can only rarely be seen in right after birth. This volume is significant because it opens views to something that has not been spoken before - and because it's good history.
In the Middle Ages, disability was an unknown word. No one identified themselves disabled - and disability has a lot to do with personal identity. Metzler also writes that people were not seen mainly as disabled people by the societies they lived in. I don't completely agree with her analysis of the disability, perhaps because I have studied social studies and see the concept of disability a bit differently.
Even if there were only few or none disabled people in the Middle Ages, there were plenty of impaired people. The line between medicine and other kinds of healing methods was not clear. Spiritual healing was an option that was often chosen by the impaired people since the medicine did not have much to offer for them. The social aspect of a miracle healing attracted some of them, they were interested of a healing in the social sense. This is interesting when it comes to Metzler's claim that disability was absent from the medieval (Western European) society.
An anecdote: On page 173 Metzler tells about a man who walked with two self-made crutches outside his home "but for one reason or another found it preferable to move around in his home environment by crawling." I can very well understand the man's reasons. Probably walking with the crutches was not very comfortable and he was mainly doing that because it was socially more accepted and maybe more convenient in an environment that was designed for people who walked. Perhaps crawling felt more natural to him.
The book offers plenty of interesting views of impairment and lives of impaired people. I know it is used as teaching material in universities, for good reasons.
In the Middle Ages, disability was an unknown word. No one identified themselves disabled - and disability has a lot to do with personal identity. Metzler also writes that people were not seen mainly as disabled people by the societies they lived in. I don't completely agree with her analysis of the disability, perhaps because I have studied social studies and see the concept of disability a bit differently.
Even if there were only few or none disabled people in the Middle Ages, there were plenty of impaired people. The line between medicine and other kinds of healing methods was not clear. Spiritual healing was an option that was often chosen by the impaired people since the medicine did not have much to offer for them. The social aspect of a miracle healing attracted some of them, they were interested of a healing in the social sense. This is interesting when it comes to Metzler's claim that disability was absent from the medieval (Western European) society.
An anecdote: On page 173 Metzler tells about a man who walked with two self-made crutches outside his home "but for one reason or another found it preferable to move around in his home environment by crawling." I can very well understand the man's reasons. Probably walking with the crutches was not very comfortable and he was mainly doing that because it was socially more accepted and maybe more convenient in an environment that was designed for people who walked. Perhaps crawling felt more natural to him.
The book offers plenty of interesting views of impairment and lives of impaired people. I know it is used as teaching material in universities, for good reasons.
June 18, 2010
reads like a text book, so i didn't get through it.
December 17, 2013
I know it is a prelim work, but somehow it wasn't as specific as I'd hoped.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews