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IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 737: Leprosy and Identity, I: Social and Religious Identity

Tuesday 5 July 2016, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Organiser:Anna Peterson, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Moderator/Chair:Elma Brenner, Wellcome Library, London
Paper 737-aConnotation and Denotation: The Construction of the Leper in Narbonne and Siena before the Plague
(Language: English)
Anna Peterson, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Medicine, Social History
Paper 737-bGood People, Poor Sick: The Social Identities of Lepers in the Late Medieval Rhineland
(Language: English)
Lucy Christine Barnhouse, Department of History, Fordham University
Index terms: Medicine, Social History
Paper 737-cLeprosy and Sanctity: Reimagining Medieval Understandings of Leprosy, 1100-1400
(Language: English)
Courtney Krolikoski, Department of History & Classical Studies, McGill University, Québec
Index terms: Hagiography, Lay Piety, Medicine, Social History
Abstract

This session seeks to analyse the identity of the leper from a social and religious context, as well as looking at the creation of individual and collective identities. These papers focus on the reception of lepers in the wider population, the developments of coherent communities within the leprosaria, the role of lepers in hagiography and as recipients of Christian charity, and how different groups identify what it was to be a leper. These discussions will be contextualised in an exploration of changing attitudes towards lepers, leprosy, and pious gift-giving. Additionally, this session will look at a wide array of examples from Italy, France, and Germany.