Julie Singer is professor of French at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of two books, including Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France: Machines, Madness, Metaphor.

"Historical records about the lives of children are sparse, relegated as they often were to the domestic sphere. Nevertheless, as [Singer] shows, literary and religious texts offer glimpses of how young people were imagined. Her perceptive analysis reveals what these depictions say about medieval ideas of disability, personhood and truth. . . A pleasure to read, full of insights where one least expects them."

• List of IllustrationsIntroduction: The Universal Alterity of the InfantChapter One: Voices from the WombChapter Two: Signs of LifeChapter Three: Nurture, the Domestic, and the ForeignChapter Four: Interrogating InnocenceChapter Five: Mute Children in the Time of MiracleConclusion: Knowing InfancyAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

Julie Singer is professor of French at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of two books, including Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France: Machines, Madness, Metaphor.

"Historical records about the lives of children are sparse, relegated as they often were to the domestic sphere. Nevertheless, as [Singer] shows, literary and religious texts offer glimpses of how young people were imagined. Her perceptive analysis reveals what these depictions say about medieval ideas of disability, personhood and truth. . . A pleasure to read, full of insights where one least expects them."

• List of IllustrationsIntroduction: The Universal Alterity of the InfantChapter One: Voices from the WombChapter Two: Signs of LifeChapter Three: Nurture, the Domestic, and the ForeignChapter Four: Interrogating InnocenceChapter Five: Mute Children in the Time of MiracleConclusion: Knowing InfancyAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

Julie Singer is professor of French at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of two books, including Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France: Machines, Madness, Metaphor.

"Historical records about the lives of children are sparse, relegated as they often were to the domestic sphere. Nevertheless, as [Singer] shows, literary and religious texts offer glimpses of how young people were imagined. Her perceptive analysis reveals what these depictions say about medieval ideas of disability, personhood and truth. . . A pleasure to read, full of insights where one least expects them."

• List of IllustrationsIntroduction: The Universal Alterity of the InfantChapter One: Voices from the WombChapter Two: Signs of LifeChapter Three: Nurture, the Domestic, and the ForeignChapter Four: Interrogating InnocenceChapter Five: Mute Children in the Time of MiracleConclusion: Knowing InfancyAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex