While the study of corporeality in contemporary times enjoys great prestige, the look at the bodies of the past seems to remain in a strange nebula that no one knows how to face. Faced with this, the prestigious medievalist Caroline Walker Bynum sets herself the ambitious goal of laying the foundations for her analysis of the body in the Middle Ages. However, as in our present world, there was no single concept of medieval "body", but rather a cacophony of discourses operates that, far from distancing us from its study, makes it even more attractive. The challenge lies, therefore, in fleeing from the dominant narratives and incorporating all those voices that until now had been silenced. Only in this way, by interrogating them from the problems of our present, will we be able to delve into one of the most elusive aspects of the past and finally understand why there is so much fuss about the body.

Translation by Isabel Mellén