The three-volume History of the Body, written by French, British and American anthropologists and cultural historians, takes a comprehensive look at the bodily practices of Europe - from the Renaissance to the present day. How attitudes towards the body have changed over the centuries, how the body has been viewed by religion, medicine, folk culture, art; how the body should behave and manifest itself; which social and sexual practices were encouraged and which were prohibited; how the body of a monarch differed from the body of a commoner - a large study edited by Alain Corbin, Jean-Jacques Courtin and Georges Vigarello tells about all this. The first volume is devoted to the history of the body from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and describes the formation of the European image of the “modern” body. The history of the body is examined here in different aspects: body and religion, body and society, body and sexuality, body and medicine, body and play, body and power.