Everything you want to know about pigs in medieval Europe. It ranges from how they were farmed in the countryside and city to how they were depicted in literature and art – and of course, how they ended up on people’s dinner plates.
Excerpt:
This book focuses on the European Middle Ages, approximately AD 500 to 1500, as particularly useful time to delve into the paradoxes embodied and acted out by the pig. Unlike our modern age, in which the pig is often tucked away in industrial production facilities out of sight or fed in fields far from the eyes of urbanites, pigs in the Middle Ages were part and parcel of daily life. This means that they leave their imprints in many sources, from artworks to land grants to court records. This book makes use of this variety of sources to understand how pigs shaped human life and how humans shaped the pig’s. This will take us into various European places in which pigs appear in the medieval sources: in the countryside, in the city, on the plate, and in the mind. Humans placed pigs into each of these environments and, in each place, the pig’s paradoxical characteristics interacted in contentious ways.
Who is this book for?
Although it is only just over a hundred pages long, this book offers a good introduction about pigs and will appeal to those studying medieval agriculture or the role of animals in medieval society. Those interested in medieval food will also have a few pages to digest.
The author
Dolly Jørgensen is Professor of History at University of Stavanger, where her research focuses on the environment and technology. You can learn more about Dolly’s work through her personal website or follow her on X/Twitter @DollyJorgensen
The Medieval Pig
By Dolly Jorgensen
The Boydell Press
ISBN: 978 1 83765 168 9
Everything you want to know about pigs in medieval Europe. It ranges from how they were farmed in the countryside and city to how they were depicted in literature and art – and of course, how they ended up on people’s dinner plates.
Excerpt:
This book focuses on the European Middle Ages, approximately AD 500 to 1500, as particularly useful time to delve into the paradoxes embodied and acted out by the pig. Unlike our modern age, in which the pig is often tucked away in industrial production facilities out of sight or fed in fields far from the eyes of urbanites, pigs in the Middle Ages were part and parcel of daily life. This means that they leave their imprints in many sources, from artworks to land grants to court records. This book makes use of this variety of sources to understand how pigs shaped human life and how humans shaped the pig’s. This will take us into various European places in which pigs appear in the medieval sources: in the countryside, in the city, on the plate, and in the mind. Humans placed pigs into each of these environments and, in each place, the pig’s paradoxical characteristics interacted in contentious ways.
Who is this book for?
Although it is only just over a hundred pages long, this book offers a good introduction about pigs and will appeal to those studying medieval agriculture or the role of animals in medieval society. Those interested in medieval food will also have a few pages to digest.
The author
Dolly Jørgensen is Professor of History at University of Stavanger, where her research focuses on the environment and technology. You can learn more about Dolly’s work through her personal website or follow her on X/Twitter @DollyJorgensen
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website
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