The three-volume History of the Body, written by French, British and American anthropologists and cultural historians, comprehensively examines the bodily practices of Europe - from the Renaissance to the present day. How attitudes towards the body changed over the centuries, how religion, medicine, popular culture and art viewed the body; how the body was supposed to behave and manifest itself; what social and sexual practices were encouraged and which were forbidden; how the body of a monarch differed from the body of a commoner - all this is told in a large study edited by Alain Corbin, Jean-Jacques Courtin and Georges Vigarello. 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 considered here in different aspects: the body and religion, the body and society, the body and sexuality, the body and medicine, the body and play, the body and power.