Wendy Pfeffer, ed., Medieval Diet and Medicine: ‘Occitan Health Advice for the Layperson’. Medical Traditions, 10. Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2024, xii, 166 pp.

I’ve always believed that medieval texts which offer their readers guidance on matters such as health and diet are among the most illuminating sources available to modern historians. Few sources provide such a clear window into a society’s identity, its sense of self, and broader frame-of-reference than those which set out to define how the human body should be understood, cared-for, and nourished. Perhaps most importantly, such texts – complete with their many stories, convictions, remedies and beliefs – remind us that we are dealing with societies and individuals whose broad engagement with the world differs sharply from our own. To this end, they are comparable in some respects to fables, animal stories, and travelogues, precisely because they offer a glimpse into a very different network of mentalities and worldviews.