The Pope's Body
For years now, journalists have engaged in feverish speculation about  the health of Pope John Paul II. There is at least as much at stake in his death  as in his life, because he is not only himself, he is also the incarnation of  the universal church. This paradoxical quality of a pope's life was first widely  discussed in the early Middle Ages. By the 13th century, resolving the tension  between the pope's actual and metaphorical body--by prolonging his life and  preserving his health--was so important that the papal court became Europe's  leading laboratory for the natural sciences. This development is the subject ofThe Pope's Body, a quirky, intelligent book by Agostino Paravicini- Bagliani, a professor of medieval history at the University of Lausanne. Burial  customs, medieval optics, and a host of motley subjects are harnessed in service  to the book's primary argument: "Once the pope as an institutional figure became  ... theincarnationof the universal church as well, the physical aspect  of his private person had to be subjected to ever more rigorous ritual and  symbolic analysis and control." This is not easy reading:  straightforward  arguments lie in thickets of allusions to medieval science and theology.  Nevertheless, it's worth the work.--Michael Joseph Gross