The Beast Within ─ Animals in the Middle Ages

The Beast Within explores the varying roles of animals as property, food, and sexual objects, and the complex relationship that this created with the people and world around them. Joyce E. Salisbury takes an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, weaving a historical narrative that includes economic, legal, theological, literary, and artistic sources. The book shows how by the end of the Middle Ages the lines between humans and animals had blurred completely, making us recognize the beast that lay within us all.

This new edition has been brought right up to date with current scholarship, and includes a brand new chapter on animals on trial and animals as human companions, as well as expanded and updated discussions on fables and saints, and a new section on "bestial humans." This book remains a key work on the historical study of animals, as well as in the field of environmental history and also provides crucial context to ongoing debates on animal rights and the environment.

Joyce E. Salisbury is the Frankenthal Professor of History Emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, USA.