The Incorruptible Flesh
Bodily Mutation and Mortification in Religion and Folklore
£34.99
Part of Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture
- Author: Piero Camporesi
- Translator: Tania Croft-Murray
- Date Published: February 2009
- availability: Available
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521108829
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What significance did the body have for the obsessively religious, superstitious, yet materially bound minds of the pre-industrial age? The human body was a constant prey to disease, plague, unhealthy living conditions, the evil effects of druggery and nutritional deficiency, yet the saints seemed to testify to the existence of life beyond this, to a tangible Garden of Eden where all suffering was reversed. The right to entry to this haven was also seen in corporeal terms. The practice of abstemiousness, self-inflicted torture, even the courting of humiliation could trigger visions of beatitude, of the longed-for paradise. In this extraordinary and often astounding book, Professor Camporesi traces these experiences back to various documents across the centuries and explores the juxtaposition of medicine and sorcery, cookery and surgery, pharmacy and alchemy. He opens the window on a fascinating and colourful, if at times violent, world: of levitating and gyrating saints, gardens full of candied fruits and crystalline fountains, amazing exorcisms and arcane medical practices.
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×Product details
- Date Published: February 2009
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521108829
- length: 300 pages
- dimensions: 229 x 152 x 17 mm
- weight: 0.44kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Foreword
Translators Notes
Part I:
1. The 'prodigious manna'
2. The 'impassible' saint
3. The dust of Death
4. Superhuman and heavenly life
Part II:
5. Decay and rebirth
6. Entomata
7. Hypercatharsis
8. The 'clock of health'. Bertoldo changes diet and dies
Part II:
9. Food for heroes
10. 'Cock's broth'. The cook and the exorcist
11. 'Everlasting perfumers'
12. Forbidden games
Part IV:
13. The 'flesh of God'
14. 'Paradisus voluptatis'
15. Food sanctuaries
16. The 'plagues of Africa'. 'Darkness over Egypt'
Index.
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