num_pages: 223
description: This compelling study of leprosy as a literary motif shows the widespread extent to which the disease was associated with moral defilement in the Middle Ages. The book traces the history of leprosy as a mark of immorality and shows how medieval medical writers considered the disease to be the physical manifestation of a moral condition. Professor Brody describes the position of lepers in medieval society by examining attempts to segregate them, strip them of legal rights, and otherwise deny then their humnanity. He demonstrates how moral judgements are conveyed by the views of leprosy found in religious writing such as the Bible, biblical commentaries, preachers' handbooks, and sermons; and he shows how protrayals of lepers in medieval literature mirror the moral associations of the disease found everywhere in our culture.
language: English
title: The disease of the soul;: Leprosy in medieval literature
titlecomplete: The disease of the soul;: Leprosy in medieval literature
ratings_count: 7
publisher: Cornell University Press