In Walking Corpses, Timothy S. Miller and John W. Nesbitt contextualize reactions to leprosy in medieval Western Europe by tracing its history in Late Antique Byzantium, which had been confronting leprosy and its effects for centuries.

Integrating developments in both the Latin West and the Greek East, Walking Corpses challenges a number of misperceptions about attitudes toward the disease, including that theologians branded leprosy as punishment for sin (rather, it was seen as a mark of God's favor); that Christian teaching encouraged bans on the afflicted from society (in actuality, it was Germanic customary law); or that leprosariums were prisons (instead, they were centers of care, many of them self-governing). Informed by extensive archival research and recent bioarchaeology, Walking Corpses also includes new translations of three Greek texts regarding leprosy, while a new preface to the paperback edition updates the historiography on medieval perceptions and treatments of leprosy.

About the Author

Timothy S. Miller is Professor Emeritus of History at Salisbury University. He is the author of The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire and The Orphans of Byzantium. John W. Nesbitt has retired as Research Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks. He is coauthor of The Miracles of St. Artemios and editor of Byzantine Authors. Miller and Nesbitt are coeditors of Peace and War in the Byzantium.

Reviews

A very readable introduction to a fascinating subject and a valuable example of the importance of studying the Byzantine origins of medieval institutions.

* Church History *

This is a compact, accessible study, which delivers on its promise to bring the insights provided by studies of late antique Greek leprosy to bear on medieval Latin ones.

* History of Religions *

A welcome resource for the teaching of medieval leprosy, a fraught and fascinating topic in undergraduate classrooms. Walking Corpses both expands the field of study and shows directions in which this necessary endeavor can be continued.

* Comitatus *



Book Information
ISBN 9781501770838
Author Timothy S. Miller
Format Paperback
Page Count 282
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 16mm