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Disability appears in many forms in medieval images: physical and mental ill-health, sensory impairment as well as chronic conditions like leprosy are visually represented. Disability was mostly regarded as a punishment for one’s sins or the act of demonic intervention. Often, the crippled are token images rather than characters, defined by their disability and depicted as beggars for food or health.
The western-European medieval world largely engaged with nonconforming bodies or behaviours in connection to guilt, shame and sin. Depictions of vices, devils or negative allegorical characters have non-standard bodies. Amongst sinners compared on the same page to the virtuous, one can recognise the figure of a lunatic by tattered clothes, unmoving grin and baldness.
Sinners playing dice Apocalypse (France, 14C) Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Franรงais 13096, f.51r
If the human form was a reflection of God, any deviation from the fully-abled, masculine, youthful and white body was a corruption of this perfect mirror. The logical conclusion of this connection of disfigurement with sin was (generally) that enough prayer and faith could undo even permanent physical disabilities such as a hump. Many disabled bodies depicted are pilgrims.
Humpback praying for health Pèlerinage de vie humaine (France, 1400-1410) Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Français 829 f.94r
The ethical/religious system was one way of thinking about bodies and disability; medicine offered another one, nonetheless still informed by the former. Even though their medical models vastly differed from ours, the medieval definition of disability or ‘cripple’ness is surprisingly large, including mental health as well as (arguably) menses.
‘The cripple speketh to himself’ Carthusian miscellany (England, c1460) British Library, Add MS 37049 f.29r
Poor mental health (depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy etc) were acknowledged and sometimes made visible in medieval images. They were explained as an imbalance in bodily humours (like melancholy) or demonic possession (like in the previous and in the expanded cover image, where a devil floats above the ‘lunatic’ character).
Melancholy/Depression Heidelberger Schicksalbuch (Germany, c.1491) Heidelberg University Library, Cod. Pal. germ. 832 f.105v
Disabled bodies are visually represented with an invasive curiosity about their non-standard embodiment, and mainly approached as something to achieve a cure for. While a lot of impaired people in the middle ages put their faith in the church for such a cure, others are depicted as going about their lives with the help of assistive technologies and the compassion of others.
Blind child in a wheel-barrow Romance of Alexander (England, c. 1400) Oxford Bodleian, MS. Bodl. 264 f.158v
Assistive technologies designed to help disabled (as well as elderly) members of the society achieve tasks otherwise prohibited by their impairment manifested in multiple forms, from crutches and braces to seeing dogs. A monastic sign language, developed to communicate through the vow of silence, could have also been used by the mute/deaf community.
Blind pilgrim with seeing dog Wellcome Apocalypse (England, c.1420) Wellcome collections, MS 49 f.17r
Leprosy, one of the most devastating diseases of the middle ages, created contagious bodies, physically and socially disabled. Nonetheless, lepers did not use bells or clappers in order to scare people away. Since leprosy destroys the vocal chords, the noise alerted people of the disabled person’s presence and helped them gather donations
Leper with bell Pontifical (England, c.1425) British Library, MS Lansdowne 451 f.127r
Leprosy as well as other mental and physical disability was sometimes reclaimed as venues of closeness to the suffering Christ. Many saints had headaches, visions, bleeding limbs and paralysis states that would today be recast as a disability or chronic medical condition. Nonetheless, these conditions were welcome and sometimes sought by religious practitioners.
Catherine of Sienna makes herself ‘as a leper’ Life of Catherine of Sienna (Germany, 15C) Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Allemand 34, f.4v
If you want to know more: Pocket Miscellanies #10: Mobility Aid Metzler (2006) Disability in Medieval Europe: Thinking about Physical Impairment Pearman (2010) Women and Disability in Medieval Literature Steiner (2014) Leprosy, Madness, and Disability among the Jews of Medieval Europe Turner (2010) Madness in Medieval Law and Custom
COVER: Abbot blessing physically disabled, blind, mentally ill Miroir historial (France, c.1350) Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Arsenal 5080 f97v
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