Summary Humanity has always shown a keen interest in the pathological, ranging from a morbid fascination with 'monsters' and deformities to a genuine compassion for the ill and suffering. Medieval and early modern people were no exception, expressing their emotional response to disease in both literary works and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in the plastic arts. Consequently, it becomes necessary to ask what motivated writers and artists to choose an illness or a disability and its physical and social consequences as subjects of aesthetic or intellectual expression. Were these works the result of an intrusion in their intent to faithfully reproduce nature, or do they reflect an intentional contrast against the pre-modern portrayal of spiritual ideals and, later, through the influence of the classics, the rediscovered importance and beauty of the human body? The essays contained in this volume address these questions, albeit not always directly but, rather, through an analysis of the societal reactions to the threats and challenges that essentially unopposed disease and physical impairment presented. They cover a wide range of responses, variable, of course, according to the period under scrutiny, its technological moment, and the usually fruitless attempts at treatment. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction and Epidemiological Perspective Rinaldo F. Canalis and Massimo Ciavolella Part I. Medieval and Transitional Periods The Art of Medicine in Byzantium: Disease and Disability in Byzantine Manuscripts Alain Touwaide Miracle and the Monstrous: Disability and Deviant Bodies in the Late Middle Ages Jenni Kuuliala. Leprosy, Melancholy, Folly and their Representations in French Medieval Literature Gaia Gubini Malady in Literary Texts from the Medieval and Early Modern Periods. Some Hypotheses on a Paradoxical Constellation Joachim K pper Fevers, Botches and Carbuncles: Describing the Plague in Late Medieval and Early Modern Medical Treatises Lori Jones Part II. The Early Modern Period The Role of Architecture and the Decorative Arts in Renaissance Medicine Francis Wells Art in Disease and Disease in Art: Reflections on Two Early Modern Paradigmatic Examples Manuela Gallerani. The Mal Franzoso: Between Art, History and Literature: Paracelso and Della Porta Alfonso Paolella The Ailing Artist Roberto Fedi Nicolas Poussins The Plague at Ashdod and the French Disease Efrain Kristal 'Yet have I in me something dangerous': On the Interplay of Medicine and Maleficence in Shakespeare's Hamlet Sara Frances Burdorff Textures of Lesions - Textures of Prints Domenico Bertoloni Meli Index