Table of Contents

Introduction 1. The Ancient World 2. Leprosy in the Byzantine Empire 3. Byzantine Medicine 4. Byzantine Leprosariums 5. Leprosy in the Latin West 6. Leprosariums in the Latin West 7. The Knights of Lazarus Conclusion Appendixes 1. Aretaios of Cappadocia, On Acute and Chronic Diseases (Books IV.13 and VIII.13) 2. Gregory of Nyssa's Oration, Regarding the Words "As much as you have done for one of these, you have done for me" (Matt. 25:40) 3. Selection from The Funeral Oration in Praise of Saint John Chrysostom (Chapters 60.17 to 67.1)

About the Author

Timothy S. Miller is Professor of History at Salisbury University. He is the author of The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire and The Orphans of Byzantium. John W. Nesbitt has retired as Research Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks. He is coauthor of The Miracles of St. Artemios: A Collection of Miracle Stories by an Anonymous Author of Seventh-Century Byzantium, editor of Byzantine Authors: Literary Activities and Preoccupations, and coeditor of the six-volume Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and the Fogg Museum of Art.

Reviews

"Walking Corpses inpresses as a book filling gaps in existing scholarship, and provides a welcome resource for the teaching of medieval leprosy, a fraught and fascinating topic in undergraduate classrooms. Of particular value is the appendix with the author's edition of relevant texts on leprosy. Walking Corpses both expands the field of study and shows directions in which this necessary endeavor can be continued."-Lucy Barnhouse, Comitatus(August 2015) "'Wretched corpses,"moving cadavers,"creeping bodies.'Fourth-century Byzantine bishops used thesephrases to describe men and women afflicted with leprosy. Timothy S. Miller and John W. Nesbitt invitereaders to reinterpret this dramatic language in their book, Walking Corpses, a useful comparative studyof religious, medical, and legal reactions to leprosy in Byzantium and the medieval Latin West."-Elizabeth W. Mellyn, Isis (December 2015) "Walking Corpses provides an excellent overview of leprosy and the history of attitudes and treatment from antiquity to medieval times, with primary focus on Byzantium and the West. The book is thorough, scholarly, and eminently readable."-John M. Duffy, Harvard University "Timothy S. Miller and John W. Nesbitt have retrieved a wealth of source material to help elucidate the study of leprosy and its perception by society. Walking Corpses is written in an accessible way that should appeal to a broad audience of those interested in Byzantium and the Middle Ages as well as the history of disease and Christian charity."-Dionysios Stathakopoulos, King's College London, author of Famine and Pestilence in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Empire