While in our present time pigs are primarily only found penned on a farm or less commonly roaming deep in the wilds, in the European Middle Ages they occupied a significantly wider range of spaces and interacted with people in many more ways than they now do. Prof. Dolly Jørgensen’s new book “The Medieval Pig” presents and overview of their history during this period.
The phrase “here there be dragons,” so famously seen on old maps indicating places where there were great and mysterious dangers to be found, was not so very long ago not simply a metaphor. In fact, no less an authority on natural philosophy (what would later become known as natural history) than Linnaeus himself included […]
Should anyone one day tell me that I don’t know my ass from Medieval history, in a very short time from now I shall be able to reply with confidence that thanks to having read Dr. Kathryn L. Smithies’ “Introducing the Medieval Ass” I most certainly do.