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&#160; Format: Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-7190-9636-5 Pages: 256 Publisher: Manchester University Press Price: £70.00 Published Date: February 2016 BIC Category: History, History of medicine, History &#38; Archaeology, European history: medieval period, middle ages, CE period up to c 1500, HISTORY / Medieval, Medicine / History of medicine, Humanities / Medieval history, MEDICAL / History&#160;Fools and idiots? is the first book devoted to the cultural history in the pre-modern period of people we now describe as having learning disabilities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, including historical semantics, medicine, natural philosophy and law, Irina Metzler considers a neglected field of social and medical history and makes an original contribution to the problem of a shifting concept such as 'idiocy'.Medieval physicians, lawyers and the schoolmen of the emerging universities wrote the texts which shaped medieval definitions of intellectual ability and its counterpart, disability. In studying such texts, which form part of our contemporary scientific and cultural heritage, we gain a better understanding of which people were considered to be intellectually disabled, and how their participation and inclusion in society differed from the situation today. This book will be required reading for anyone studying or working in disability studies, history of medicine, social history and the history of ideas.&#160;Contents1. Pre-/conceptions: problems of definition and historiography2. From morio to fool: semantics of intellectual disability3. Cold complexions and moist humors: natural science and intellectual disability4. The infantile and the irrational: mind, soul and intellectual disability5. Non-consenting adults: laws and intellectual disability6. Fools, pets and entertainers: socio-cultural considerations of intellectual disability7. Reconsiderations: rationality, intelligence and human statusSelect bibliographyIndexMore informations on the editor website&#160;