Caroline Walker Bynum is Professor of Medieval History at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Past president of both the American Historical Association and the Medieval Academy of America, she was a MacArthur Fellow from 1986 to 1991. She is the author of numerous books, including Metamorphosis and Identity, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336, Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion, and Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women, and is the editor, with Paul Freedman, of Last Things: Eschatology and Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, also published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

• List of IllustrationsPrefaceSome Notes on UsageChapter 1. Introduction: A Frenzy for Blood-The Emergence of Blood Piety-Blood in the Fifteenth-Century North-Some Recent ApproachesPART I. CULTS IN NORTHERN GERMANYChapter 2. Wilsnack-The Events-Historiography-Blood at the Center-Treatises de Sanguine -Larger QuestionsChapter 3. Cults in Mecklenburg and the Mark Brandenburg-Historiography and the Problem of the Evidence-Blood Cult in Middle Germany and the Havelland-North and West of Wilsnack-Anti-Jewish Libels Circa 1500: Sternberg and Berlin-The Fate of Cults in the Sixteenth-Century North-Holy Matter and the JewsPART II. BLOOD DISPUTES IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE AND THEIR BACKGROUNDChapter 4. Debates About Eucharistic Transformations and Blood Relics-Visions and Transformations-The Practical Issue of Transformed Hosts-Concomitance and the Cup-The Debate over Blood Relics: Background-Grosseteste, Bonaventure, and Aquinas on Blood Relics and Identity-Gerhard of Cologne-Discussions of Blood Relics in the Fifteenth CenturyChapter 5. Christ's Blood in the Triduum Mortis-Mayronis and the Barcelona Controversy of 1350-51-John of Capistrano on the Precious Blood-The Triduum Mortis Debate of 1462-64-Some Arguments Attributed to Nicholas of Cusa-Patterns in Dominican and Franciscan Theology-ConclusionPART III. THE ASSUMPTIONS OF BLOOD PIETYChapter 6. A Concern for Immutability-The Immutability Theme at Wilsnack-The Transformed-Hosts Debate: A Deeper Issue-Immutability in Debates over Blood Relics and Treatises de Sanguine-Wholeness and Immutability in Story and Cult-Devotional Images-ConclusionChapter 7. Living Blood Poured Out-Blood as Fertility-Blood as Social Survival-Blood as Engendering and Gendered-Blood as Sedes Animae-Continuity in Discontinuity: The Exsanguination of Christ-Blood as AliveChapter 8. Blood as Separated and Shed-The Stress on Separation-Blood as Drops-The Revelation of the Hundred Pater Nosters-Accusation and Reproach-Blood as Symbol-The Deeper Paradox: SacrificePART IV. SACRIFICE AND SOTERIOLOGYChapter 9. Late Medieval Soteriology-Salvation as Satisfaction and Response: The Conventional Account-Salvation as Participation-Julian of Norwich-ConclusionChapter 10. Sacrificial Theology-The Biblical and Patristic Background-Destruction and Oblation-Sacrifice in Blood Cult and Controversy-The Sixteenth CenturyChapter 11. The Aporia of Sacrifice-Questioning Blood: The Meditations on the Life of Christ-Avoiding Sacrifice-Who Sacrifices? Including/Excluding Christians and Blaming Jews-Sacrifice and the Marking of MatterChapter 12. Conclusion: Why Blood?List of AbbreviationsNotesBibliography of Works CitedIndexAcknowledgments

"Bynum's latest masterpiece."-Renaissance Quarterly"A wide-ranging exploration of the meaning of the macabre but ubiquitous 'blood piety' that loomed large in Western Christianity in the later Middle Ages."-New York Review of Books"For three decades now, Bynum has been pivotal in drawing the attention even of nonspecialists to some of the overlooked, sophisticated conceptions that late medieval piety developed of personal identity, death, redemption, gender, asceticism, and the body. She now zooms in on and brilliantly illuminates the equally complex and equally crucial issue of blood. . . . Her empathy with medieval Christians has allowed her to put her finger on one of their key concerns, and Wonderful Blood should refocus the study of late medieval piety once more."-Times Literary Supplement"A work of deep scholarship. . . Bynum's erudite book poses the question, why blood? . . . There is no other scholar who is better prepared to answer that question."-Speculum