Coronavirus: advice from the Middle Ages for how to cope with self-isolation
The pandemic of COVID-19 is often called “unprecedented” – and for many people cooped up in their homes in different countries, the experience is both unparalleled and challenging. But in late-medieval Europe, individuals self-isolated professionally. Some people – women particularly – permanently withdrew from society to live walled in, alone in a room attached to a church. Click here to read more, and see a lovely medieval illustration of a woman 'enclosed'.
In May 2017, Godelinde Gertrude Perk travelled over from the Netherlands to give the Julian Festival Lecture in Norwich. She is now a postdoctoral researcher in Medieval Literature, University of Oxford.
The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public.