As múltiplas representações sobre a lepra na Baixa Idade Media: o discurso médico e outras imagens narrativas e visuais

Abstract

This dissertation had the purpose to analyze leprosy during the Middle Ages (XII-XV), taking into account that diseases are not only object of study of the biological field, but they reveal how a society is faced with the fear of the unexpected, since its numerous socio-economic and cultural effects. Since it affects humans, diseases also become a history study object. Thus, we will specifically analyze the conceptions of that disease, present in the medical manual written by the medieval physical Bernard of Gordon (1250? -1320?), Lilium medicinae (1305). Therefore, we take into account the growth of the city of Montpellier, as a center of knowledge for medieval medicine which provided Gordon a fruitful place for hi studies and education about the disease, and it will be compared some interpretations that emerged with the disease in the medical literature, local culture and in the religious field. As noted, leprosy produced in medieval society a range of representations arising from the medical discourse as well as the cultural discourse. In this way, we intend to discuss the differences and similarities of this medical literature (books and medical treatises) with religious production (songs) and visual (illuminations) about the disease.