Bread of Dreams : Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Europe

Rating:
Summary: An incredible tour of hungry Europe -- Hell, really
Review: This scholarly and amazing book ranges through pre-modern Southern Europe, focussing not on aristocrats but rather on ordinary folk: peasants, city-dwellers, and the many beggars and poor people of Italy and to a lesser degree, France. Camporesi posits a startling theory: Europeans lived in various ongoing states of "collective vertigo," hallucination and illness brought on by starvation or the eating of tainted foodstuffs, commonplace at that time. This state of affairs, Camporesi asserts, was promoted and exacerbated by various medical, social, and religious establishments.(The medical establishment of Bologna, for example, codified the foods 'medically' appropriate for rich and poor, resulting in additional loss of life.) Hunger was the central organizing principle in the lives of so many. The notorious famine years were times of acute rather than chronic starvation -- and "incredible and repugnant substances" were often eaten, often with fatal results. It's all here : "Terrible noises, worms, vermin, ghosts and goblins," opiates, visions, toxic brews, exorisms, violence, and always death and more death. Christianity's scant words of encouragement are quoted, too. This study is replete with evidence from literature, political history, the history of medicine and religion, and contemporary accounts. It's well-organized and elegantly presented. No illustrations, but the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch would work well. A great book.