Visualizing Household Health: Medieval Women, Art, and Knowledge in the Regime du corps

The Régime du corps, a health handbook created in 1256 by Beatrice of Savoy, was popular and influential, with nearly seventy surviving copies made over the next two hundred years. Art historian Jennifer Borland uses the Régime to show how gender and health care converged within the medieval household. She focuses on illustrated versions of the manuscript that depict scenes related to health care, providing evidence of women's agency in the home and the history of medieval women as owners, patrons, and readers of books.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 23 April 2024
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

In 1256, the Countess of Provence, Beatrice of Savoy, sought the expertise of her personal physician to author a comprehensive health handbook, intended for her daughters. Crafted in French and titled the Régime du corps, this influential text gained widespread popularity, with approximately seventy surviving copies created over the next two hundred years. Additionally, it saw translations into at least four other languages. In her book Visualizing Household Health, art historian Jennifer Borland employs the Régime to examine how gender and healthcare converged within medieval households.

Visualizing Household Health delves into the characteristics of the households depicted in the Régime and explores how their members interacted with professionalized medicine. Borland specifically focuses on several illustrated versions of the manuscript, which contain historiated initials depicting various scenes related to healthcare, including patients consulting physicians, procedures such as bloodletting, and recommended foods and beverages for good health. Through these images, Borland argues that they offer valuable insights into the nature of women's agency within the home and provide compelling evidence of women's active involvement in diverse forms of healthcare. Moreover, she suggests that the Régime provides a window into the history of medieval women as owners, patrons, and readers of books.

Interdisciplinary in its approach, this book broadens our understanding of the medieval medical community and the significant role of women in medieval healthcare. It will appeal to scholars and students specializing in women's history, art history, book history, and the history of medicine, offering a rich and multifaceted perspective on this historical era.

Weight: 618g
Dimension: 254 x 203 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780271093468