A cultural history of disability in the middle ages

  • How was disability viewed in medieval times?

    The Middle Ages was a time dominated by the idea of God.
    The notion that people with disabilities were "Children of a Caring God" (Les enfants du Bon Dieu) was prevalent.
    The "child of God" perception is reflected in the writings of the Koran , Confucius , and Zoroaster ..

  • How were blind people treated in medieval times?

    For most of history, humans had struggled to feed and shelter themselves.
    During millennia of marginal existence, blindness was a particularly cruel fate that threatened survival.
    Throughout the Middle Ages, the blind in Europe were dependent on family, friends, or church for basic needs..

  • What happened to people with disabilities in the Middle Ages?

    For people with disabilities, the period was marked by indifference, neglect, and fear.
    As in Roman times, people with physical disabilities, mental illness or intellectual deficiency were the "fools" and court jesters employed to entertain nobility.
    The Middle Ages was a time dominated by the idea of God..

  • What is the Society for the Study of disability in the Middle Ages?

    “The Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of medieval disease, disability, injury, illness, and impairment within their social context.” Supervised by administrator Kisha Tracy of Fitchburg State University..

  • What were the attitudes to disability in the Middle Ages?

    Attitudes to disability were mixed.
    People thought it was a punishment for sin, or the result of being born under the hostile influence of the planet Saturn.
    Others believed that disabled people were closer to God - they were suffering purgatory on earth rather than after death and would get to heaven sooner..

  • World books

    For most of history, humans had struggled to feed and shelter themselves.
    During millennia of marginal existence, blindness was a particularly cruel fate that threatened survival.
    Throughout the Middle Ages, the blind in Europe were dependent on family, friends, or church for basic needs..

  • In other instances, blind people could be afforded privileged status and power — acting as poets, musicians, and artists, and courtiers.
  • People with disabilities were ridiculed, such as the court jester who was actually someone with a humped back.
    Ridicule often turned to persecution and "impurity" turned into a vision of disability as a manifestation of evil.
An essential resource for researchers, scholars, and students of history, literature, visual art, cultural studies, and education, A Cultural History of Disability in the Middle Ages explores themes and topics such as atypical bodies; mobility impairment; chronic pain and illness; blindness; deafness; speech; learning
The Middle Ages was an era of dynamic social transformation, and notions of disability in medieval culture reflected how norms and forms of embodiment interacted with gender, class, and race, among other dimensions of human difference. Google BooksOriginally published: 2020

What is a social history of disability?

Published as part of Routledge’s series in Cultural History, A Social History of Disability delves more deeply into the lived experience of disability in the Middle Ages

Crisply organized into four thematic chapters on law, work, ageing and charity, she manages to extrapolate a broad yet rigorous overview of the cultural experience of disability

What was disability in medieval Europe?

Metzler’s previous book, Disability in Medieval Europe, considered the philosophical, theological, and theoretical framework of disability in medieval society

Published as part of Routledge’s series in Cultural History, A Social History of Disability delves more deeply into the lived experience of disability in the Middle Ages


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