Available December 2026

Larisa Grollemond

Dispelling myths of a dirty, superstitious Middle Ages, this entertaining volume explores medieval approaches to health and wellness.

Often maligned as an era of darkness and superstition, the Middle Ages in Europe have been stereotyped as lacking standards for basic hygiene, or, at the very least, for having a laughably simplistic approach to self-care and medicine. In truth, medieval practices surrounding wellness were complex, encoding a wide variety of social and cultural expectations and anxieties. Yet the relationship medieval people had to their own bodies and minds—along with the pursuits undertaken to perfect them—was a sophisticated one, not unlike our own today.

With wit and expert analysis, medievalist Larisa Grollemond explores some of the most frequently asked questions about the Middle Ages, such as: Did people bathe? How did they take care of their teeth? Did the same person who cut hair really also perform amputations? Richly illustrated with over 130 images of artifacts and manuscript illuminations alongside excerpts from medieval sources such as medical treatises, herbals, and recipe books, Medieval Wellness riffs on modern wellness culture while revealing what life was really like in the Middle Ages.

Larisa Grollemond is associate curator of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the coauthor of The Book of Marvels (Getty, 2024) and The Fantasy of the Middle Ages (Getty, 2022).

176 pages
7 x 9 1/4 inches
133 color illustrations
ISBN 979-8-88712-061-4
paperback

Getty Publications
Imprint: J. Paul Getty Museum

2026