This volume is the first in-depth analysis of how infirm bodies were represented in Italy from c. 1400 to 1650. Through original contributions and methodologies, it addresses the fundamental yet undiscussed relationship between images and representations in medical, religious, and literary texts. Looking beyond the modern category of ‘disease’ and viewing infirmity in Galenic humoral terms, each chapter explores which infirmities were depicted in visual culture, in what context, why, and when. By exploring the works of artists such as Caravaggio, Leonardo, and Michelangelo, this study considers the idealized body altered by diseases, including leprosy, plague, goitre, and cancer. In doing so, the relationship between medical treatment and the depiction of infirmities through miracle cures is also revealed. The broad chronological approach demonstrates how and why such representations change, both over time and across different forms of media. Collectively, the chapters explain how the development of knowledge of the workings and structure of the body was reflected in changed ideas and representations of the metaphorical, allegorical, and symbolic meanings of infirmity and disease. The interdisciplinary approach makes this study the perfect resource for both students and specialists of the history of art, medicine and religion, and social and intellectual history across Renaissance Europe.

Gift-giving played an important role in political, social and religious life in medieval and early modern Europe. This volume explores an under-examined and often-overlooked aspect of this phenomenon: the material nature of the gift. Drawing on examples from both medieval and early modern Europe, the authors from the UK and across Europe explore the craftsmanship involved in the production of gifts and the use of exotic objects and animals, from elephant bones to polar bears and 'living' holy objects, to communicate power, class and allegiance. Gifts were publicly given, displayed and worn and so the book explores the ways in which, as tangible objects, gifts could help to construct religious and social worlds. But the beauty and material richness of the gift could also provoke anxieties. Classical and Christian authorities agreed that, in gift-giving, it was supposed to be the thought that counted and consequently wealth and grandeur raised worries about greed and corruption: was a valuable ring payment for sexual services or a token of love and a promise of marriage? Over three centuries, Gift-Giving and Materiality in Europe, 1300-1600: Gifts as Objects reflects on the possibilities, practicalities and concerns raised by the material character of gifts.

This collection offers readers a guide to analyzing historical texts and objects using a diverse selection of sources in early modern medicine. It provides an array of interpretive strategies while also highlighting new trends in the field. Each chapter serves as a study of a different type of source, including the benefits and limitations of that source and what it can reveal about the history of medicine. Contributors provide practical strategies for locating and interpreting sources, putting texts and objects into conversation, and explaining potential contradictions. A wide variety of sources, including account books, legal records, and personal letters, provide new opportunities for understanding early modern medicine and developing skills in historical analysis. Together, the chapters highlight emerging methodologies and debates, while covering a range of themes in the field, from reproductive health to hospital care to household medicine. With wide geographical breadth, this book is a valuable resource for students and researchers looking to understand how to better engage with primary sources, as well as readers interested in early modern history and the history of medicine.

Barbara Kaminska argues that visual imagery was central to premodern disability discourses and shows how interpretations of miracle stories served to justify expectations toward the impaired and the poor.

This Element examines the emergence of comprehensive plague management systems in early modern France. While the historiography on plague argues that the plague of Provence in the 1720s represented the development of a new and 'modern' form of public health care under the control of the absolutist monarchy, it shows that the key elements in this system were established centuries earlier because of the actions of urban governments. It moves away from taking a medical focus on plague to examine the institutions that managed disease control in early modern France. In doing so, it seeks to provide a wider context of French plague care to better understand the systems used at Provence in the 1720s. It shows that the French developed a polycentric system of plague care which drew on the input of numerous actors combat the disease.

Cinderella's Glass Slipper studies Renaissance material cultures through the literary prism of fairy-tale objects. The literary fairy-tale first arose in Renaissance Venice, originating from oral story-telling traditions that would later become the Arabian Nights, and subsequently in the Parisian salons of Louis XIV. Largely written by, for, and in the name of women, these literary fairy-tales took a lightly comic view of life's vicissitudes, especially female fortune in marriage. Connecting literary representations of bridal goods - dress, jewellery, carriages, toiletries, banqueting and confectionary foods - to the craft histories of their making, this Element offers a newly-contextualised socio-economic account of Renaissance luxe, from architectural interiors to sartorial fashioning and design. By coupling Renaissance luxury wares with their fairy-tale representation, it locates the recherché materialities of bridal goods - gold, silver, diamonds and silk - within expanding colonialist markets of a newly-global early modern economy in the age of discovery.

Current research and theory from a range of disciplines on ageism, discussing issues from elder abuse to age discrimination against workers, revised and updated. People commonly use age to categorize and stereotype others–even though those who stereotype the elderly are eventually bound to become elderly themselves. Ageism is found cross-culturally, but it is especially prevalent in the United States, where most people regard growing older with depression, fear, and anxiety. Older people in the United States are stigmatized and marginalized, with often devastating consequences. This volume collects the latest theory and research on prejudice against older people, offering perspectives from psychology, nursing, medicine, social work, and other fields. The second edition has been completely updated, with new or extensively revised contributions. The contributors, all experts in their fields, consider issues that range from elder abuse to age discrimination against workers. There has been a relative dearth of research on ageism, perhaps because age prejudice is still considered socially acceptable. This book is still the only one that examines ageism in such detail, from such diverse scholarly perspectives. The contributors discuss the origins and effects of ageism and offer suggestions for how to reduce ageism as the wave of baby boomers heads for old age. Contributors Yoav S. Bergman, Ehud Bodner, Jennifer Barbour, Piers Bayl-Smith, Daphne Blunt Bugental, Maria Clara P. de Paula Couto, Susan T. Fiske, Jeff Greenberg, Barbara Griffin, Jessica A. Hehman, Peter Helm, Sarah H. Kagan, Molly Maxfield, Lynn McDonald, Mary Chase Mize, Joann M. Montepare, Todd D. Nelson, Michael S. North, Amanda Rumsey, Jeff Schimel, Laura Shannonhouse, Dirk Wentura, Susan Krauss Whitbourne