A01=Ayoush Lazikani
astrology
astronomy
Author_Ayoush Lazikani
Beowulf
Black Death
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Category=NHB
Category=NHDJ
Category=WNX
china
eclipse
Edda
eq_bestseller
eq_history
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
europe
health
lunar
medicine
medieval
natural cycles
persia
season
Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
Troilus and Criseyde
Product details
- ISBN 9780300278286
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 26 Aug 2025
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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A vivid new history of how medieval people around the world perceived the moon
When they gazed at the moon, medieval people around the globe saw an object that was at once powerful and fragile, distant and intimate—and sometimes all this at once. The moon could convey love, beauty, and gentleness; but it could also be about pain, hatred, and violence. In its circularity the moon was associated with fullness and fertility. Yet in its crescent and other shifting forms, the moon could seem broken, even wounded.
In this beautifully illustrated history, Ayoush Lazikani reveals the many ways medieval people felt and wrote about the moon. Ranging across the world, from China to South America, Korea to Wales, Lazikani explores how different cultures interacted with the moon. From the idea that the Black Death was caused by a lunar eclipse to the wealth of Persian love poetry inspired by the moon’s beauty, this is a truly global account of our closest celestial neighbour.
When they gazed at the moon, medieval people around the globe saw an object that was at once powerful and fragile, distant and intimate—and sometimes all this at once. The moon could convey love, beauty, and gentleness; but it could also be about pain, hatred, and violence. In its circularity the moon was associated with fullness and fertility. Yet in its crescent and other shifting forms, the moon could seem broken, even wounded.
In this beautifully illustrated history, Ayoush Lazikani reveals the many ways medieval people felt and wrote about the moon. Ranging across the world, from China to South America, Korea to Wales, Lazikani explores how different cultures interacted with the moon. From the idea that the Black Death was caused by a lunar eclipse to the wealth of Persian love poetry inspired by the moon’s beauty, this is a truly global account of our closest celestial neighbour.
Ayoush Lazikani is a lecturer at the University of Oxford. A specialist in medieval literature, she is the author of Cultivating the Heart and Emotion in Christian and Islamic Contemplative Texts, 1100–1250, and an associate editor for the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women’s Writing in the Global Middle Ages.
