Paper 616-a | Have Crutch, Will Travel: Disabled People on the Move in Medieval Europe (Language: English) Irina Metzler, Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Research (MEMO), Swansea University / Projekt 'Homo Debilis', Universität Bremen Index terms: Art History - General, Daily Life, Social History |
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Abstract | Paper -a:
Mobility and access are important issues for disabled persons in the modern world - what would their medieval predecessors have encountered? Contrary to stereotypes of the immobile, impoverished 'cripple', physically impaired people did travel in the Middle Ages, and some of them traversed considerable distances. This paper looks at motives for travel (in the main attendance at healing shrines), means of travel (mobility aids and transportation) and reactions to travel (praise or condemnation). Drawing material from a range of sources including miracle stories and art history the paper outlines the type and availability of mobility aids for the physically disabled.
Paper -b:
In British Library Stowe MS 49 c. 1300, there is an image of 'wayfarers' who are shown in profile with misshapen and grotesque faces. Wayfarers were people who walked to survive and can be categorised as lepers, beggars, pedlars, messengers, and minstrels. Such figures were deemed to be the outcasts of medieval life. However, their presence was a constant reminder of society's conflicting views towards mobile figures on account of their perceived miscreant status, but who were also useful to urban centres in many different ways.
This paper will show how images of wayfarers depict a significant body of people who cemented communities through their mobility. However, the representations demonstrate that the wayfarers were portrayed as more akin to a bestial world in order for authority figures to distance themselves from those they found untrustworthy.
Paper -c:
In my contribution I wish to explore the representations, meanings, and communicative functions of illness and impairment in personal letters of the 15th and 16th centuries that contemporary travellers wrote to their families at home - seeking help and advice, money, medicine, prayers, and consolation. Due to their professions, scholars, artisans, and merchants spent a notable amount of time abroad. During the absence of family and friends and lacking the assistance that generally came with local social networks, unexpected and long-term illness could pose a more tenuous threat than usual. The paper will focus on how those being exposed to sudden illness or bodily impairment perceived and evaluated their situation and which temporarily established networks could compensate for the lack of familial bonds.
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