Introducing the Medieval Snail

Julia Pineau (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

144 Seiten

2026
University of Wales Press (Verlag)
978-1-83772-372-0 (ISBN)

Noch nicht erschienen (ca. Juni 2026)
Portofrei ab CHF 40
Auch auf Rechnung

Artikel merken

When one thinks about medieval animals, snails rarely come to mind. Just as history has long had its biases, so has the study of animals – both have long focused on the ‘crowned heads’. A focus on the seemingly insignificant, on the small and the frail, offers a fresh point of view. This book studies the uses and representations of medieval snails, spanning material culture, medicine and gastronomy as well as a great variety of texts and images – taking into consideration bestiaries, sermons, poems and insults, as well as marginalia, sculpture, paintings and painted ceilings. Observing the Middle Ages from the viewpoint of a snail can be surprising, and lead us to delve into material everyday life as well as the core of culture-building. This study concludes with a novel reading of the famed ‘snail-combat motif’, in which a knight cowers faced with a ferocious mollusc, making a connection between Gothic marginalia and a new, most malleable cultural expression: the meme.

Preface
List of illustrations
Introduction
1 – What is a snail? A slippery scope
2 – Concrete uses: waste not, want not – from frugality to luxury
3 – Snails in texts: meanings most malleable
4 – Snails in visual art: devil in the detail
5 – Molluscs in Marginalia: the snail-combat motif
6 – Success and posterity: introducing the “Memedieval”
Conclusion
Bibliography
Endnotes

Erscheint lt. Verlag	15.6.2026
Reihe/Serie	Medieval Animals
Zusatzinfo	Not illustrated
Verlagsort	Wales
Sprache	englisch
Maße	129 x 198 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
ISBN-10	1-83772-372-9 / 1837723729
ISBN-13	978-1-83772-372-0 / 9781837723720
Zustand	Neuware