A Cultural History Of Animals In The Medieval Age

Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008 HARDBACK SET A Cultural History of Animals is a multi-volume project on the history of human-animal relations from ancient times to the present. The set of six volumes covers 4500 years of human-animal interaction. Volume 1: Antiquity to the Dark Ages (2500BC - 1000AD) Volume 2: The Medieval Age (1000-1400) Volume 3: The Renaissance (1400-1600) Volume 4: The Enlightenment (1600-1800) Volume 5: The Age of Empire (1800-1920) Volume 6: The Modern Age (1920-2000, including a discussion of animals of the future) As the same issues are central to animal-human relations throughout history, each volume shares the same structure, with chapters in each volume analysing the same issues and themes. In this way each volume can be read individually to cover a specific period and individual chapters can be read across volumes to follow a theme across history. Each volume explores: the sacred and the symbolic (totem, sacrifice, status and popular beliefs), hunting; domestication (taming, breeding, labour and companionship); entertainment and exhibitions (the menagerie, zoos, circuses and carnivals); science and specimens (research, education, collections and museums); philosophical beliefs; and artistic representations. The full six volume set combines to present the most authoritative and comprehensive survey available on animals through history. INDIVIDUAL VOLUMES AVAILABLE

Originally published in 1971, Animals in Art and Thought discusses the ways in which animals have been used by man in art and literature. The book looks at how they have been used to symbolise religious, social and political beliefs, as well as their pragmatic use by hunters, sportsmen, and farmers. The book discusses these various attitudes in a survey which ranges from prehistoric cave art to the later Middle Ages. The book is especially concerned with uncovering the latent, as well as the manifest meanings of animal art, and presents a detailed examination of the literary and archaeological monuments of the periods covered in the book. The book discusses the themes of Creation myths of the pagan and Christian religion, the contribution of the animal art of the ancient contribution of the animal art of the ancient Orient to the development of the Romanesque and gothic styles in Europe, the use of beast fables in social or political satire, and the heroic associations of animals in medieval chivalry.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008 A Cultural History of Animals in the Medieval Age investigates the changing roles of animals in medieval culture, economy and society in the period 1000 to 1400. The period saw significant changes in scientific and philosophical approaches to animals as well as their representation in art. Animals were omnipresent in medieval everyday life. They had enormous importance for medieval agriculture and trade and were also hunted for food and used in popular entertainments. At the same time, animals were kept as pets and used to display their owner's status, whilst medieval religion attributed complex symbolic meanings to animals. A Cultural History of Animals in the Medieval Age presents an overview of the period and continues with essays on the position of animals in contemporary symbolism, hunting, domestication, sports and entertainment, science, philosophy, and art.

This book investigates relations between humans and animals over several centuries with a focus on the Middle Ages, since important features of our perceptions regarding animals have been rooted in that period. Elucidating various aspects of medieval human-animal relationships requires transdisciplinary discourse, and so this book aims to reconcile the materiality of animals with complex cultural systems illustrating their subtle transitions 'between body and mind'.

This important book offers a unique exploration of the use of and attitude towards animals from the 4th to the 14th centuries, exploring the varying roles of animals as property, food and sexual objects, and the complex relationship that this created with the people and world around them.