Oftenmaligned as an era of darkness and superstition, the Middle Ages in Europehave been stereotyped as lacking standards for basic hygiene, or, at the veryleast, for having a laughably simplistic approach to self-care and medicine.In truth, medieval practices surrounding wellness were complex, encoding awide variety of social and cultural expectations and anxieties. Yet therelationship medieval people had to their own bodies and minds-along with thepursuits undertaken to perfect them-was a sophisticated one, not unlike ourown today.With wit and expert analysis, medievalistLarisa Grollemond explores some of the most frequently asked questions aboutthe Middle Ages, such as: Did people bathe? How did they take care of theirteeth? Did the same person who cut hair really also perform amputations?Richly illustrated with over 130 images of artifacts and manuscriptilluminations alongside excerpts from medieval sources such as medicaltreatises, herbals, and recipe books, Medieval Wellnessriffs on modern wellness culture while revealing what life was really like inthe Middle Ages.
