The king’s body: chapters on health and disease by D. Duarte (1433 -1438)

Abstract

Best acknowledged for his policy and his work on moral edification, the king of Portugal D. Duarte (1391-1438) was also devoted to thinking about the health and the diseases of the body, in the material and corruptible way. The purpose of this paper is to realize that thought in a dual relationship: in its specificity and as a participant in a movement of greater appreciation for life, which can be detected in the late Middle Ages.