The purpose of this paper is to characterise the meaning of the sense of touch for medieval monastic culture from the tenth to the twelfth century using selected sources created at the Cluny abbey as example in comparison to other monastic sources. The paper discusses methodological approaches to the study of the history of the senses. Then, the issues of the sense of touch in Christian theology are described based on the analysis of moralistic and exegetical works created in Cluny Abbey. Examples of the association of touch with particular sins are also indicated, taking into account the temporal context, in which the sources were created (including treatises, poems, sermons and hagiography). Finally, the meaning and function of touch in the daily life of a medieval monastery is described, using the content of Cluniac consuetudines from the eleventh century. The papers concludes with a summary containing reflections on the sensual type of monastic culture and what may have been the basis for the authors’ bias against the sense of touch.

Something we have known since the beginning of mankind is the act of bathing. It is used to clean not only the body, but also the soul. Water has a high ritual function, especially within Christianity. The two main bathing women of the Old Testament are Susanna and Bathsheba. Whereas for some the act of bathing is a small part of their story, for Susanna and Bathsheba it is the most important event of their narratives.

These women have been the topic of many discussions within the theological and art. historical field. Susanna, seen as the perfect example of a pious woman, has been praised during the entire period of the Middle ages, while Bathsheba has often been characterised as seductive, or possibly sexual. However, when looking at the way the two women are depicted in the late Middle Ages, we see both ladies illustrated in almost the exact same manner. Why would two women who are interpreted so differently, be portrayed the same way?

The theme of this article focuses on a specific group of visual artworks created during the late Middle Ages. This group is characterised by the use of the Adoration of the Three Kings iconography, with the key aspect of the composition being the act of gazing at the genitals of the Infant Jesus. The article has reviewed the medieval cultural and theological model of thinking about the naked body of the child as both sexless and male. The origins of Christian views on the biological nature of man can be traced back to Hebrew and ancient culture and the concept of Logos. The relationship between creation, male sexuality, and the ideal of physical perfection was vividly taken up by medieval theologians, and also reflected in fine art works. The formation of the iconography of representations of the Adoration and the understanding of how secular rulers and representatives of the clergy were viewed is also an important theme. The group of depictions in question seems to serve to explain the origins of power and to indicate moral standards. The use of the depiction of the naked body of the Child to demonstrate the genesis of earthly, secular, and clerical authority was specific to the late Middle Ages.

The article discusses the intersection between emotions and physical health in the narration of the “Annales seu cronicae incliti regni Poloniae” by Jan Długosz (1415–1480). The research is placed within the framework of the history of emotions, a field aimed at determining how people in the past used to perceive and experience emotions. Its main scope is to find out how emotions can influence the body and health according to the medieval author. The descriptions of illnesses and deaths caused by the influence of emotions are analysed both from the point of view of the medieval medicine and approach to emotions as well as contemporary concepts of psychosomatics and Susan Sontag’s approach.

Healthcare has always been one of the key elements of human existence. The issue of the prevention of diseases and all kinds of ailments was taken up by scholars who represented various disciplines. Iatromathematics, combining medicine and astrology, offered excellent possibilities. The interpretation of this knowledge can be found in various astrological treatises, notes, calendars and prognostics, or strictly iatromathematical works. It is in these works that the manner and scale of the influence of the elements of the lunar world on man in the context of his health and illness are described. It is also here that a description of a rich array of diseases and ailments that affected the human body can be found. This gives us the possibility to deduce what type of diseases they were, but also how frequently they occurred. All this is placed in the context of the parallels between the macro‑and the microcosm.

The following article presents how in the sixteenth century England, thanks to the increased awarness of the problems with mental disorders, the stories of madness entered the world of Renaissance drama and appeared in the works of numerous writers. As early modern culture and literature made attempts to understand female melancholy or insanity, particular focus is given to the characters of Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the Duchess in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. The thorough analysis of the texts shows that contrary to the then common belief that all women’s illness and irrationality derived from the womb, those were, too a great degree, social constraints which affected women and pushed them into insanity. Oppressive, male dominant and chaotic socjety either pushed women into a state of complete madness, which subsequently results in death or it is the madness, confusion and chaos around them that was the cause of their death.

The paper explores the issue of physical injuries resulting from interpersonal conflicts, in particular arguments, disputes, ordinary brawls and deliberate acts of physical violence occurring in the lower and middle classes in urban settings, based on the example of Gdańsk at the end of the 16th century and in the first half of the 17th century. This is based on the records of physical examination reports drawn up by the city’s barber‑surgeons on behalf of the municipal authorities for law enforcement purposes, subsequently appended to the burgrave’s and deputy mayor’s registers. In total, more than 18,000 such documents dated between 1580 and 1642 have survived. This enables an analysis of the subject at hand on a icro‑historical scale, as well as employing a statistical (quantitative) approach. The paper considers undamental issues pertaining to the nature and extent of injuries, common injury types, lasting damage, as well as questions regarding injuries, the origin and cause of which fall between physical and symbolic violence – this concerns aggressive demonstrative behaviour, marks of shame and others.

In the years 1685–1687 Gottfried Dreyer from Gdańsk stayed in Batavia (Jakarta) as a soldier in the service of the Dutch East India Company. Back in his native city, Dreyer wrote down memories of his travels. His description of Batavia in the travelogue written in 1706 is opened by an account of public executions of native men guilty of running amok. The analysis of this fragment of the journal will provide insight into the author’s mentality: his perception of public executions, as well as criminal and legitimate violence, his attitude towards the colonial authorities and the indigenous inhabitants of Java. Gottfried Dreyer’s detailed recount of the Batavian spectacle of power and accompanying drawings are shedding light on the details of the proceedings. Moreover, Dreyer recalled beliefs of the Javanese which were underpinning their understanding of the punishment. The text gives a distinctive insight into the workings of the judicial system in Batavia and includes information previously not discussed in the literature on penal practices in seventeenth‑century Java.

Both armies and the soldiers serving in them have, since the earliest times, functioned according to army regulations and military law. The primary purpose of such regulations has been to ensure effective army management. One of the sine qua non conditions was the maintenance of iron discipline and unconditional obedience of subordinates to their superiors. Any actions that threatened this principle were seen as detrimental to the army. Hence, it is not surprising that in practically all such situations, soldiers who committed rule‑breaking offences were brought before courts martial, tried and, if found guilty, convicted and punished according to the offence/crime committed. This article will Focus primarily on the various types of corporal and dishonourable punishments that were applied to soldiers during the American Civil War (1861–1865), most of which, from today’s perspective, would be seen as torture. This issue will be presented on the basis of contemporary army regulations and the proceedings of general courts‑martial, thus showing both the theoretical and practical side of the issue hand.

The history of the body is inextricably linked with the history of lingerie. Underclothes, apart from performing mundane functions of protecting the body from the elements and coarser layers of clothing, were also designed to shape the figure, especially the female figure, according to the currently fashionable beauty standards. They were to hide and to accentuate suggestively those aspects of the body that were considered titillating. The purpose of this article is to look at the history of underwear, focusing on its shaping, or even deforming properties, and to analyse the correlation between lingerie, class, and gender roles. Thus, the history of women’s undergarments is simultaneously the story of women’s liberation. Some types of underwear severely limited the possibility of movement, while others enabled the participation in sports and social life. The decision of what underclothes to wear (or whether to wear them at all) is not a mere matter of aesthetics but a powerful political statement. It is not a coincidence that feminists were labelled, erroneously, bra‑burners, while there is also a more controversial variety of the movement, the so‑called stiletto feminism. Attitudes to underwear and its “sexiness” often correspondto individual and social attitudes to femininity and gender norms.

This paper analyses history textbooks currently used in the Czech Republic; it focuseson how they deal with the issue of the historicity of the body and its related functions, and relations in pre‑modern history. It shows that the medieval body is surprisingly present in primary and secondary education, at least through history textbooks. The ways in which it is presented, however, are problematic: it remains at the margins of the canonical narrative and is not used to develop key competencies associated with historical thinking (unlike some topics in political history). In explanatory texts the history of the body is incorporated mostly in apparently unreflective ways. The author argues that a rearrangement of information and changes of perspective (which would make the historicity of the body the focus of the interpretation) would be enough to offer a more complex view of the historicity of the human body in pre‑modern societies. He also expresses hope for more research‑oriented (thus not just transmissive) teaching materials.