As Cohen shows, the late Middle Ages are an especially intriguing and important era in the history of what people have said about, and how they have responded to, pain. Indeed, since pain itself is unshareable and in some senses ineffable, the cultural need to conceptualise and interpret it – to make it available for collective reflection – is arguably all the more urgent. What we do have access to is the history of what people have said and done about pain – the many different stories they have told about it, the meanings they have attached to it, the definitions of it which they have come up with, their changing attitudes towards pain. As Esther Cohen points out in this massively erudite, lucidly written and pioneering book, the sensation of pain itself cannot be known. Bodily pain is a rich and fascinating topic for cultural historians.
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