If you want a book that really is about the body in medieval times then you can do better, on the other hand if you are happy with a well written, slightly unfocused social history in snippets you may enjoy.Ĥ.5 - I gobbled this book up in no time. For me this is a shame, as it could have been much better. At its best it is very good, but too often it drifts to this randomness. It's all intelligent stuff, but nevertheless turns what could have been a really interesting book, into a mildly interesting random collection of information about medieval times. I'm not sure if this is because there was not much more to say on the subject of feet or it's just poor editing. Structured around several themes - all taken from parts of the body like heart, hands and feet, the book then describes medieval attitudes, beliefs and behaviours to these parts of the body - or at least that what it claims to do.Īt times it does this well, but too often the author uses the chapter title as an excuse for a rambling exploration of subjects only tenuously connected with the book or chapter title - hence from feet we go to travel and from travel to maps.
The writing is to a high standard, erudite and mostly interesting. Beautifully presented and well illustrated, this is a lovely object. In the category of book as physical object this would gain 5 stars.
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