How Does One Do the History of Disability in Antiquity? One Thousand Years of Case Studies

Abstract

Exploring literary sources from the first century bce up to the eleventh century CE, this article demonstrates how the history of disabilities in antiquity can go further than just collecting ‘interesting case histories’. Using a model developed by Michel Vovelle, the sources are interpreted on different levels, taking into account both the cultural context in which the text arose and the intentions of the author.