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Medieval Lit Bibliography - Physical Features

Bibliography

Brody, Saul Nathaniel. The Disease of the Soul: Leprosy in Medieval Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1974.
This book identifies leprosy with moral defilement, linking it specifically to lechery and sexual sins. After giving medical, social, and religious contexts for viewing leprosy this way, it then considers leprosy as it appears in literature.

Secreta Secretorum, Three Prose Versions. Ed. R. Steele. Early English Text Society, Extra Series 74, vol 1. London: 1898.
In addition to short sections on precious stones and herbs, the second version includes a short physiognomy (pp. 114-18). The third version contains a longer physiognomy (216-36) which includes such symbols as facial features, skin hue, and physical size.

Secretum Secretorum: Nine English Versions. Ed. M. A. Manzalaoui. Early English Text Society 276. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. 082.Se25s
Four of the versions contain the section on physiognomy (10-17; 89-113; 197-202; 376-84) and include similar information as that listed above.

Selected Secondary Sources

Evans, Elizabeth C. "Physiognomics in the Ancient World," Transaction of the American Philosophical Society. n.s. 59, part 5 (1969).

Ladner, Gerhart B. Ad Imaginem Dei: The Image of Man in Medieval Art. Latrobe, Penn: The Archabbey Press, 1965.