Introduction: Monstrosity, Disability, and Knowledge

Abstract

This book examines how physically unusual humans and animals (referred to at the time as ‘monsters’ or ‘monstrous births’) were understood in early modern England. The author argues that England’s populace was interested in physical deformity because such bodies provided news- and gossip-worthy information that could also reveal the will of God and the internal workings of Nature. The book’s historiography addresses scholarship on disability, monstrosity, religion, politics, science, and print culture in early modern Europe.