Probing the depth of medieval European body culture: preliminary research on methods of physical training 1250–1500

The breadth of authoritative summaries on the body culture history often renders certain topics ‘invisible’ if they are overlooked or deemed unimportant by their authors. One such neglected topic is the European body culture between Antiquity and the modern period, that is, in the Middle Ages. This oversight is significant, because the medieval period remains an important inspiration for contemporary cultural processes and the lack of reliable data on European body-cultural heritage fuels the spread of invented traditions harnessed for political goals. This article aims to help vindicate the medieval body culture by surveying historical sources revealing both its breadth and depth, as well as challenging the supposed discontinuity between the Middle Ages and the adjacent periods – Antiquity and Modernity. Through a literature review and sampling of primary historical sources, four categories of sources are distinguished and characterised: ‘fight books’, ‘princely mirrors’, ‘dietaries’, and ‘ego-documents’. By analysing these texts together for the first time, the study revealed new information about medieval body culture and its connections to other historical periods, underscoring the need for further research and an updated history of European body culture, possibly rethinking also the current omission of the Middle Ages from European sport history.