From 'love-madness' and the power of St John the Baptist's severed head, to 'wilfully impractical' shoes with long, pointed toes, Jack Hartnell examines the spiritual and intellectual significance of bodies and how parts of the body – from head to foot – were understood and treated in the Middle Ages. ‘Born, bathed, dressed, loved, cut, bruised, ripped, buried, even resurrected, medieval bodies,' writes Hartnell, 'are a path to understanding the very essence of everyday life in the past.’