Saffron and ostrich liver were prescribed but so were exercise, gardens, animals, socialising, and music

Explore this post and more from the AskHistorians community

Many troubling attitudes towards the female body have their roots in the early modern period, argues Erin Maglaque.

Self-Help from the Middle Ages raises some provocative questions about historical figures. Was Thomas Aquinas truly a...

Contributors to Engelsberg Ideas share the books they’ve enjoyed in the summers of their lives.

The Seven Deadly Sins fuelled a medieval appetite for self-improvement just as strong as our own.

We often think of medieval medicine as strange, unhygienic and unscientific, but The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living reveals a far richer story. Long before modern wellness trends, people in the Midd...

Eight questions about writers, books, and reading…

Podcast Episode · The British Food History Podcast · 2 April · 37min

Amid civil war and regicide, a group of women claimed the right to speak directly for God, asserting spiritual authority in a society that denied them a voice.

A spellbinding narrative history that defies modern assumptions about women’s lives in the Middle Ages and informs contemporary debates about sexual violence and the limits of justice

Cambridge Core - British History after 1450 - The Dreaded Pox

Margaret Beaufort, grandmother of Henry VIII, used her iron resolve to lay the foundations of Tudor England.

A chance discovery in a Tokyo library revealed a rare medieval memoir by a Japanese noblewoman, a work that belongs to a fascinating tradition of female autobiography in Heian and Kamakura Japan.

Belief in the living dead arose whenever faith wavered and fear reigned supreme.

Across the medieval world, the Moon induced feelings of fear and fascination.

Guy Stagg sets out to understand the redemptive power of retreat, but in exploring the solitary lives of Wittgenstein, Jones and Weil, he discovers something more sinister.

The idea of privacy is a surprisingly modern notion, but one worth defending.

A delightful, compelling history makes a case for understanding pilgrimage as an activity in which the secular and the sacred are inextricably entwined.

Through the religious turbulence of the early modern period, women played an essential role in shaping, challenging, converting, and resisting Christian beliefs across Europe and the imperial world.

Many early modern individuals were able to do impossible things. Teresa of Ávila claimed she could levitate. What did these beliefs illustrate about the religious and scientific life of the period?

Avoid sneezing and sex—and maybe check out the healing properties of young blood.

Repulsive revelations of bodily infestations were viewed by some in medieval Europe as proof of sanctity. But for most, parasites were just plain disgusting.

Bedbugs have hit the news in recent weeks, with infestations sweeping across Paris and other French cities. But worry about the small insects – which often live in furniture and bedding and can leav...

Essays offering insights into the ecclesiastical, political, cultural and social history in the north of England during the fourteenth century through an exp...