Beauty and ugliness, two extremes that intersect through human experience, remain an inexhaustible source of creative inspiration and popular belief. In 'The Beauty of Ugliness and the Ugliness of Beauty: Materializing Monstrosity in the Middle Ages,' the editors aim to redefine the concept of the medieval monster by revisiting issues that have received little attention. This collection of five essays examines various topics, including the stigmatization of disability in clerical circles through canon law decretals, the duality of good and evil in the Latin world, the image of women in marriage contract negotiations, the interpretation of monsters as 'signs' or 'things,' and the evolving interpretations of medieval monsters in post-medieval contexts.



Anna M. Migdal is a researcher specializing in the history of aesthetics from the perspective of its sociocultural diversity and pragmatic and semantic values, in the visual arts and the iconography of the medieval Europe, during approximatively from the late 5th until the late 15th and early 16th centuries. She received her doctorate degree at the University Lumie?re Lyon II - MOM / Maison de l'Orient et de la Me?diterrane?e Jean Pouilloux after receiving the master graduation at the Institute of Art History at the Jagiellonian University. She was designated "Maitre de conferances" (Senior Lecturer) 21st section CNU Paris. Marcell Seb?k is Associate Professor at the Department of Medieval Studies of Central European University, Vienna. His main research areas are late medieval and early modern history of science and collecting, networks and knowledge production.



Introduction by Anna M. Migdal and Marcell Sebok CHAPTER 1. (Un)Acceptable Disability? Defectus Corporis, Scandalum, and Pontifical Grace Ninon Dubourg CHAPTER 2. A Distorted Image of the Woman. Some Remarks on the Visual Semiotics of the Monster in Medieval Imagery (Image feminine difforme. Sur la semiotique visuelle du monstre dans l'imagerie medievale) Anna M. Migdal CHAPTER 3. The Monster Within: Death, Disease and Demons in the Holkham Bible Picture Book Lacy Gillette CHAPTER 4. Trading in Beauty and Ugliness on the Medieval Marriage Market Federica Boldrini CHAPTER 5. Nature vs. Nurture in the Monstrosity of English Books that Mark the End of an Era: Frankenstein and Beowulf Cassandra Ruiz