Overview

Early Modern Bodies is a wide-ranging and detailed introduction to a variety of different approaches to and perspectives on bodies in the early modern period, circa 1500–1750. The collection guides readers through an examination of bodies at every stage of life, from birth to death and the afterlife, as they are situated in different social, cultural, and geographical contexts. It considers the bodies of numerous potential identities, such as criminals, prostitutes, witches, soldiers, and non-conforming sexualities. Though its focus is primarily Western Europe, the volume also pays attention to the wider world, especially with respect to developing ideas about race and ‘other’ bodies in what has been dubbed an ‘age of exploration’. Chapters are also dedicated to analysing what it was to be human, how humankind was considered in relation to the natural world, and how those adhering to non-Christian faiths were thought about. This book is an accessible, essential text for students and established scholars alike who are interested in the history of the body, early modern history, and gender and sexuality. Chapter 17 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY) 4.0 license.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sarah Toulalan (University of Exeter, UK)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Inc
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   1.440kg
ISBN:  

9780815347521

ISBN 10:   0815347529
Pages:   674
Publication Date:   25 November 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: Early Modern Bodies - Approaches and Contexts PART 1: THE STAGES OF LIFE Introduction: Bodies and the stages of life 1. Birth, Infancy, and Childhood 2. The Perils and Promise of Puberty 3. Adulthood: Marriage, Reproduction and Family 4. Adulthood: Single Lives 5. Old Age 6. Death PART 2: ENVIRONMENTS Introduction: Environments 7. Humankind and the Natural Environment 8. The Court 9. The City 10. Country Bodies, or Peeking into The Tax Collector’s Office 11. Distant Bodies: Depicting Europeans in Early Modern China PART 3: CONTEXTS Introduction: Contexts 12. Confusions and Conflations: Sex, Gender, and Changing Notions of the Body 13. Social Rank: Plain Russet Coated Captains - the Social Semiotics of Rural Workers’ Clothing, c.1500-1700 14. Race: The Early Modern English Case 15. Religion 16. Politics 17. Medicine PART 4: IDENTITIES Introduction: Identities 18. Humans 19. Non-Christian ‘Others’ 20. Criminals 21. Prostitutes: Identifying the Whore 22. The Body of the Witch 23. Rogues and Vagabonds 24. Soldiers and Women Warriors 25. Sodomites and Mollies 26. Sapphists and Tribades

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Author Information

Sarah Toulalan is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Exeter, UK. She works on histories of the body, sex, fertility and reproduction, and sexuality. She is the author of Imagining Sex: Pornography and Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England (2007).

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