Contemporary historical and medical writing on impairment in the medieval period claim the disabled were blighted evidence of God’s disfavour. Such opinions are often tautologies, unsupported by fourteenth-century primary sources such as Piers Plowman and Lollard writings. Vagrancy proclamations (1495), and dissolution of monasteries from 1538 encouraged self-sufficiency. Impairment may not have equalled poverty.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndersonJ.Y.TrinkausE.1998. ‘Patterns of Sexual, Bilateral and Interpopulational Variation in Human Femoral Neck–shaft Angles’, Journal of Anatomy, vol. 192(2): 279–85.
2.
AstonM.1984. ‘Caim’s Castles: Poverty, Politics and Disendowment’, in DobsonR.B. (ed.), The Church, Politics and Patronage in the 15th Century, Gloucester: 45–81.
3.
BråtenMTerjesenT.RossvollI.1992. ‘Femoral Anteversion in Normal Adults: Ultrasound Measurements in 50 Men and 50 Women’, Acta Orthopaedic Scandinavica, vol. 63(1): 29–32.
4.
DamianoD.L.AlterK.E.ChambersH.2009. ‘New Clinical and Research Trends in Lower Extremity Management for Ambulatory Children with Cerebral Palsy’. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America, vol. 20(3): 469–91.
5.
DettwylerK.A.1991. ‘Can Paleopathology Provide Evidence for “Compassion”?’ American Journal of Physical Anthropology, vol. 84(4): 375–84.
6.
DrewR.2013. ‘A Review of the Ischium–Pubis Index: Accuracy, Reliability, and Common Errors’, Human Biology, vol. 85(4): 579–96.
7.
EylerJ.R. (ed.). 2010. Disability in the Middle Ages: Reconsiderations and Reverberations, Surrey, UK.
8.
FlynnJ.M.MillerF.2002. ‘Management of Hip Disorders in Patients with Cerebral Palsy’, Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, vol. 10(3): 198–209.
9.
GelbermanR.H.CohenM.S.DesaiS.S.GriffinP.P.SalamonP.B.O’BrienT.M.1987. ‘Femoral Anteversion: A Clinical Assessment of Idiopathic Intoeing Gait in Children’, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery [British], vol. 69(1): 75–79.
10.
GianfallJ.M.2010. ‘“Ther is Moore Misshapen amonges Thise Beggeres”: Discourses of Disability in Piers Plowman’, in EylerJ.R. (ed.), Disability in the Middle Ages: Reconsiderations and Reverberations, Surrey, UK: 119–33.
11.
GoldbergP.J.P.2006. ‘Life and Death: The Ages of Man’, in HorroxR.OrmrodW.M. (eds), A Social History of England: 1200–1500, Cambridge: 413–34.
12.
HannaS.E.RosenbaumP.L.BartlettD.J.PalisanoP.J.WalterS.D.AveryL.RussellD.J.2009. ‘Stability and Decline in Gross Motor Function among Children and Youth with Cerebral Palsy Aged 2 to 21 Years’. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, vol. 51(4): 295–302.
13.
HimmelmannK.AhlinK.JacobssonB.CansC.2011. ‘Risk Factors for Cerebral Palsy in Children Born at Term’, Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, vol. 90(1): 1070–91.
14.
HumphryG.1889. ‘The Angle of the Neck with the Shaft of the Femur at Different Periods of Life and Under Different Circumstances’, Journal of Anatomy, vol. 23(2): 273–82.
15.
KingsleyP.C.OlmstedK.L.1948. ‘A Study to Determine the Angle of Anteversion of the Neck of the Femur’, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery [American], vol. 30-A: 745–51.
16.
KurzM.J.StubergW.DeJongS.L.2011. ‘Body Weight Supported Treadmill Training Improves the Regularity of the Stepping Kinematics in Children with Cerebral Palsy’. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, vol. 14(2): 87–93.
17.
LeroiA.M.2005. Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body, London.
18.
MarfatB.KefiR.Beraud-ColombE.2007. ‘Palaeopathological and Palaeogenetic Study of 13 Cases of Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip with Dislocation in a Historical Population from Southern France’, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, vol. 17: 26–38.
19.
MateM.E.2006. ‘Work and Leisure’, in HorroxR.OrmrodW.M. (eds), A Social History of England: 1200–1500, Cambridge: 276–92.
20.
MetzlerI.2006. Disability in Medieval Europe: Thinking About Impairment during the High Middle Ages, c. 1100–1400, Oxon.
21.
MitchellP.D.RedfernR.C.2011. ‘Brief Communication: Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip in Medieval London’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, vol. 144(3): 479–84.
22.
MorrellD.S.PearsonJ.M.SauserD.D.2002. ‘Progressive Bone and Joint Abnormalities of the Spine and Lower Extremities in Cerebral Palsy’, RadioGraphics, vol. 22(2): 257–68.
23.
MoultonA.UpadhyayS.S.1982. ‘A Direct Method of Measuring Femoral Anteversion Using Ultrasound’, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery [British], vol. 64(4): 469–72.
24.
ParsonsF.G.1914. ‘The Characters of the English Thigh-bone’, Journal of Anatomy, vol. 48: 238–67.
25.
PearmanT.V.2010. ‘“O Sweete Venym Queynte!”: Pregnancy and the Disabled Female Body in the Merchant’s Tale’, in EylerJ.R. (ed.), Disability in the Middle Ages: Reconsiderations and Reverberations, Surrey, UK: 25–37.
26.
ReikerasO.BjerkreimI.1982. ‘Idiopathic Increased Anteversion of the Femoral Neck: Radiological and Clinical Study in Non-operated and Operated Patients’, Acta Orthopaedic Scandinavica, vol. 53(6): 839–45.
27.
RobertsC.A.KnuselC.J.RaceL.2004. ‘A Foot Deformity from a Romano-British Cemetery at Gloucester, England, and the Current Evidence for Talipes in Palaeopathology’, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, vol. 14: 389–403.
28.
RobinJ.KerrGraham H.SelberP.DobsonF.SmithK.BakerR.2008. ‘Proximal Femoral Geometry in Cerebral Palsy: A Population-based Cross-sectional Study’, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery [British], vol. 90(10): 1372–79.
29.
RossS.A.EngsbergJ.R.2007. ‘Relationships between Spasticity, Strength, Gait, and the GMFM-66 in Persons with Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy’, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, vol. 88(9): 1114–20.
30.
SauserD.D.HewesR.C.RootL.1986. ‘Hip Changes in Spastic Cerebral Palsy’, American Journal of Roentgenology, vol. 146(6): 1219–22.
31.
StikerH.1999. A History of Disability, trans. Wm Sayers, Michigan.
32.
StirlandA.J.1994. ‘The Angle of Femoral Torsion: An Impossible Measurement?’ International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, vol. 4: 31–35.
33.
StirlandA.J.1997. ‘Care in the Medieval Community’, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, vol. 7: 587–90.
34.
StirlandA.J.2005. The Men of the Mary Rose: Raising the Dead, Gloucestershire.
35.
SundrumR.LoganS.WallaceA.SpencerN.2005. ‘Cerebral Palsy and Socioeconomic Status: A Retrospective Cohort Study’, Archives of Disease in Childhood, vol. 90: 15–18.
36.
ToveyB.2010. ‘Kingly Impairments in Anglo-Saxon Literature: God’s Curse and God’s Blessing’, in EylerJ.R. (ed.), Disability in the Middle Ages: Reconsiderations and Reverberations, Surrey, UK: 135–48.
37.
WheatleyE.2010. Stumbling Blocks before the Blind: Medieval Constructions of a Disability, Michigan.
38.
YoshiokaY.CookeT.D.V.1987. ‘Femoral Anteversion: Assessment based on Function Axes’. Journal of Orthopaedic Research, vol. 5(1): 86–91.
