Introducing the Medieval Ass

Introducing the Medieval Ass considers the fascinating ways that medieval people understood the ass, or donkey. A beast of burden and metaphor for human behaviour, medieval authors used the ass's assumed traits irrationality, humility, stubbornness, sexual perversion to educate, entertain, and enthral.

• This is the first book dedicated to the medieval ass • It appeals to a multi-Audience: interested lay readership; accessible, introductory and undergraduate level book; scholar • This book explains how the medieval ass was an arse, an idiot, a violent hot-tempered sexed-up brute that ate the balls of its own male offspring. Conversely, the ass was also a humble, patient, loyal, hard-working Christian animal (marked with a cross) that Christ rode into Jerusalem. These paradoxical qualities are explored in this book and open up a wealth of information on how people in the Middle Ages viewed the ass, not just as a simple beast of burden, but also as a figure to warn and to educate, to expose human failings and praise the divine. • Introducing the Medieval Ass reveals medieval attitudes to animals, to people, and to the divine, making it an excellent way to approach medieval cultural and animal studies.

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