{"product_id":"introducing-the-medieval-ass-by-kathryn-l-smithies-9781786836229","title":"Introducing the Medieval Ass","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIntroducing the Medieval Ass\u003c\/em\u003e presents a lucid, accessible, and comprehensive picture of the enormous socioeconomic and cultural significance of the ass, or donkey, in the Middle Ages and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn medieval times, the ass was a vital, utilitarian beast of burden, rather like ubiquitous white delivery vans today. At the same time, however, the ass had a rich, paradoxical reputation. Its hard work was praised, but its obstinacy condemned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt exemplified the good Christian, humbly bearing Christ to Jerusalem, but also represented sloth, a mortal sin. It had a potent sexual reputation—in one literary work, an ass had sex with a woman—even as it was simultaneously linked to sterility.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOver time, the ass also became synonymous with human idiocy, a comic figure representing foolish peasants, students too dull to learn, and their asinine teachers. This trope of foolishness was so prevalent that by the eighteenth century the word \"ass\" began to be replaced by \"donkey.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIntroducing the Medieval Ass\u003c\/em\u003e offers a wide-ranging account of the importance, and often surprising cultural prevalence, of this common domesticated animal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47000651202796,"sku":"9781786836229","price":42.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/4891333482824.jpg?v=1763293768","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/products\/introducing-the-medieval-ass-by-kathryn-l-smithies-9781786836229","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}