Ann Marie Rasmussen, Medieval Badges: Their Wearers and Their Worlds. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021, xi, 299 pp., 15 color plates, 102 b/w ill, 1 map.

Abstract

Abstract For several decades now, art and cultural historians have discussed the curious phenomenon of medieval badges. There are millions of specimens left until today, primarily found in northwestern and northeastern Europe, but they also existed in the south. The vast majority of badges served pilgrims to signal to the public what holy sites they had visited, but many badges also identified the social, political, or occupational group the wearer belonged to. Badges could additionally be used as symbols of oppression, such as the yellow star for Jews. Most curiously, there are also many badges showing genitalia by themselves or in combination (penis and vulva), or the scene of copulation. Badges communicated in specific fashion, and they served exceedingly well to convey information to the outside world, virtually in the form of medieval media.