During the Middle Ages, Nidaros (now Trondheim) was a vibrant and bustling town influenced by commerce, migration, and powerful institutions. This book examines the impact of urban living on physical bodies, daily activities, and life opportunities, as well as the transition of health from a private issue to public responsibility, including the timing and reasons for this transition. By using a continuously multidisciplinary methodology, it facilitates a conversation between urban archaeology and urban development, osteology and bioarchaeology, ancient DNA and proteomics, stable isotope studies, dendrochronology, palaeobotany, and textual sources. This amalgamation enables the assessment of disease burden, dietary and nutritional stress, climate variability, and mobility, while correlating these trends with changes in water supply, waste management, and hygiene practices.

Health is seen as a multifaceted result of interactions among environmental factors, economic conditions, social disparities, life-course dynamics, institutions, and risk perceptions. The book utilizes the notion of healthscaping to illustrate how urban space, regulation, and infrastructure were used to create safer and "healthier" urban settings prior to the advent of modern medicine.