Summer in the Middle Ages wasn’t a season of leisure — it was a fight against heat, disease, and dirty water with almost no ...

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Eyvind Earle (American, 1916-2000), "Concept Art" (1958), from Sleeping Beauty (Walt Disney Productions), gouache on board, 9 1/4 × 21 3/4 inches, Hilbert Collection (© Disney Enterprises, Inc., ...

Medieval healers treated animals’ ailments with a mix of faith, tradition and science John Last - History Correspondent Magic was just another tool in a medieval animal healer's toolbox. Illustration ...

The Chateau de La Rochepot, a 12th-century feudal castle in France. Medieval history is broader and more complex than the popular stories of castles and knights, Dan Jones argues. (Jeff ...

In Death and the Miser, a Dutch painting from around 1490, a hideous skeletal figure—a medieval version of the grim reaper—comes knocking at a man’s bedroom door. As death watches, the dying miser ...

Nothing calls to mind nonsensical treatments and bizarre religious healing rituals as easily as the notion of Dark Age medicine. The “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Medieval Barber Theodoric of York” ...

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. In the foreword to ...