The physician, the drinker and the drunk : wine's uses and abuses in late medieval natural philosophy

Why is it so puzzling for people to decide whether to censure wine, or to celebrate it?

In this book, Azélina Jaboulet-Vercherre traces a history of wine drinking by mining historical sources for descriptions of wine's properties. Relying mainly on French and Italian natural philosophical sources, with a special focus on the late Middle Ages, Professor Jaboulet-Vercherre examines and illuminates the disparate - and often conflicting - opinions of writers on wine with respect to both the preservation and restoration of health and the quest for pleasure. She also explores their analyses of wine's potentially dangerous impacts.

The thirteenth to fifteenth centuries were a time when medical experts had profound insights to offer on the subject of wine, opinions gained not from the experimental laboratory, but rather from the steady application of their cognitive skills.

This study bridges gaps in our understanding of the role of wine in late medieval civilization and, by extension, our own.