This book considers how

scientists, theologians, priests, and poets approached the relationship of the

human body and ethics in the later Middle Ages. Is medicine merely a metaphor

for sin? Or can certain kinds of bodies physiologically dispose people to be

angry, sad, or greedy? If so, then is it their fault? Virginia Langum offers an

account of the medical imagery used to describe feelings and actions in

religious and literary contexts, referencing a variety of behavioral

discussions within medical contexts. The study draws upon medical and

theological writing for its philosophical basis, and upon more popular works of

religion, as well as poetry, to show how these themes were articulated,

explored, and questioned more widely in medieval culture.

Virginia Langum is Associate Professor of English at Umeå University, Sweden and Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. She recently edited Words and Matter: The Virgin Mary in Late Medieval and Early Modern Parish Life.