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Madness, Medicine and Miracle in Twelfth-Century England (Paperback)
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Madness, Medicine and Miracle in Twelfth-Century England (Paperback)
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This book explores how madness was defined and diagnosed as a
condition of the mind in the Middle Ages and what effects it was
thought to have on the bodies, minds and souls of sufferers.
Madness is examined through narratives of miraculous punishment and
healing that were recorded at the shrines of saints. This study
focuses on the twelfth century, which has been identified as a
'Medieval Renaissance': a time of cultural and intellectual change
that saw, among other things, the circulation of new medical
treatises that brought with them a wealth of new ideas about
illness and health. With the expanding authority of the Roman
Church and the tightening of papal control over canonisation
procedures in this period, historians have claimed that there was a
'rationalisation' of the miraculous. In miracle records, illnesses
were explained using newly-accessible humoral theories rather than
attributed to divine and demonic forces, as they had been
previously. The first book-length study of madness in medieval
religion and medicine to be published since 1992, this book
challenges these claims and reveals something of the limitations of
the so-called 'medicalisation' of the miraculous. Throughout the
twelfth century, demons continue to lurk in miracle records
relating to one condition in particular: madness. Five case studies
of miracle collections compiled between 1070 and 1220 reveal that
hagiographical representations of madness were heavily influenced
by the individual circumstances of their recording and yet were
shaped as much by hagiographical patterns that had been developing
throughout the twelfth century as they were by new medical and
theological standards.
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