This interesting paper was one of the four given in the Mental Health in Non-medical Terms session at KZOO. It looked at philosophy, iconography and the way mental disability was viewed in the Middle Ages.
Mental Disability and Intellectual Impairment in the Middle Ages: Some Preliminary Research Findings
May 19, 2013 By
Going Mad in French: Royal Notaries and Charles V’s Translation Project
May 19, 2013 By
This was another interesting paper from the Mental Health in Non-medical Terms session at KZOO on notaries, and how crimes committed under “mental duress” were processed.
Man Bites Dog: Alarming Effects of Medieval Animal Venom
May 16, 2013 By
This paper was part of a fantastic series on mental health and disability in the Middle Ages. It was very humorous. This paper examined various types of bites, the “medieval symptoms” and some cures. So if you don’t want to bark like a dog, or lash out at people with your teeth, read on…
Signs and Senses: Diagnosis and Prognosis in Early Medieval Pulse and Urine Texts
April 28, 2013 By
in which they were made. These early medieval anthologies are quite different from Scholastic anthologies such as the Artkella, which were compiled as curriculum texts for the new, formalized medical instruction of the nascent universities.
The Death Toll of Justinian’s Plague and Its Effects on the Byzantine Empire
April 4, 2013 By
In 541 a plague arrived in Egypt and rapidly began to spread. The following account of the beginning of the plague, while clearly an exaggeration still shows the impact of the disease.
Syphilis in Renaissance Europe: rapid evolution of an introduced sexually transmitted disease?
January 22, 2013 By
When syphilis first appeared in Europe in 1495, it was an acute and extremely unpleasant disease. After only a few years it was less severe than it once was, and it changed over the next 50 years into a milder, chronic disease.
The monastic contribution to mediaeval medical care
January 13, 2013 By
The function of hospitals and monasteries was roughly the same. Illness was regarded by most people as a form of divine punishment. The monasteries were founded on private initiative to intercede for the souls of the living and the dead.
Excavating All Saints: a medieval church rediscovered
January 1, 2013 By
When excavations started at the site of the ‘lost’ church of All Saint’s in York, archaeologists knew they would find burials. What they found was much more than expected: an Anchoress and the remains of soldiers who helped Oliver Cromwell take the city at the Siege of York in 1644. Lauren McIntyre and Graham Bruce explain the evidence.
The Impact of Climate Change on Late Medieval English Culture
December 28, 2012 By
This thesis challenges the extremes of both environmental determinism and the modernist perspective that humanity exists in social and/or cultural isolation from the natural environment.
Animal keeping and the use of animal products in medieval Emden (Lower Saxony, Germany)
December 20, 2012 By
This thesis deals with the faunal remains from several excavations in the centre of the medieval town of Emden (Lower Saxony, Germany; Figure 1-1). The aim of this thesis is to answer questions concerning the development of animal husbandry and the use of animal products in the medieval period.
Suicide in the Middle Ages
December 17, 2012 By
All three types of source need careful interpretation. Suicide is notoriously elusive to records even in modern times, and more so for the Middle Ages. Once due allowances have been made for each genre, however, it is some reassurance that they agree on certain basics, and that these, in turn, agree with estimates from better-recorded centuries…
Neither ill nor healthy: The intermediate state between health and disease in medieval medicine
December 16, 2012 By
Paradoxically, however, the notion of an intermediate state between health and disease also has a long history, harking back, at least, to the times of Galen. The question of the existence of such a state and the utility and necessity for physicians to acknowledge it, was particularly hotly debated in the Middle Ages…
The Black Death And The Future Of Medicine
December 9, 2012 By
This paper will specifically focus on the effects of the Black Death on medicine and medical practice in Europe. Its purpose is to investigate the Black Death’s influence on medicine, especially with regard to learned medicine and surgery.
Juana “The Mad”: Queen of a World Empire
December 9, 2012 By
It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that scholars discovered new material about Juana in the Spanish and Austrian archives that gave another side to the person of the woman who had been con- sidered “la loca.”
Medicine and Health Care in Later Medieval Europe: Hospitals, Public Health, and Minority Medical Practitioners in English and German Cities, 1250-1450
November 18, 2012 By
This interdisciplinary study, written from the standpoint ofan aspiring physician, seeks to contribute to the humanistic dimension of medicine by helping to integrate it further with its past, illuminating the meaning of health and disease in medieval society while adding depth to current thinking about medicine and public health. This study places various aspects ofhealth and disease within the framework of two major topics, religious beliefs and urban social history.
Bishopstone, Sussex – A Quiet, Rural Anglo-Saxon Village? What the Human Remains Tell Us
October 26, 2012 By
The primary aim of this text is the analysis and report of the skeletal human remains from the excavation of the late Anglo-Saxon settlement and cemetery at Bishopstone, East Sussex. The analysis of the skeletal remains covered the basic data: sex, age, stature, palaeopathology and dental pathology.
You Are What You Eat: Hildegard of Bingen’s Viriditas
October 21, 2012 By
Hildegard argues in the beginning of Physica that humans become what they eat.
Paget’s disease in an Anglo-Saxon
October 21, 2012 By
A recently excavated skeleton from an Anglo-Saxon burial ground at Jarrow Monastery is described.Virtually all the bones are abnormal, having the morphological and radiological features of Paget’s disease.It is one of the most convincing examples in the annals of palaeopathology and confirms the antiquity of this condition.
Maculate Conceptions
September 30, 2012 By
For the greater part of human history…disease has been understood in terms of its manifestations on the outside of the body. more than any other sign, t has been spots that have signified the onset of disease…
“A Swarm in July”: Beekeeping Perspectives on the Old English Wið Ymbe Charm
September 14, 2012 By
At the same time, however, their differing responses to the remedy attest both to the variation of beekeeping practices and the multivalence of Wið Ymbe itself. The fact that two beekeepers interviewed within two days and two hundred miles of each other can respond differently to the charm’s advice on swarms suggests that we reevaluate unilateral assertions regarding what the text might have meant across the hundreds of years that we now know as the Anglo-Saxon period.
The Virtues of Balm in the Late Medieval Period
September 8, 2012 By
The nature of balsam and its qualities, especially the ability to act as an extraordinarily effective preservative, demands further inquiry. Is this Lydgate’s invention, or instead a reflection of late medieval ideas about a particular natural substance?
The Lived Experience of the Black Death
August 29, 2012 By
To appreciate the importance of the biological effects of disease on a society’s lived experience, it can be useful to look at modern examples. Polio provides an excellent example. Children who survive an infection of polio – and escape the neurological incapacitation that can result in disability up to paraplegia – have a fifty percent chance of suffering the similar effects of post-polio syndrome later in life.
Fruit of the Womb: Prenatal Food in Renaissance Italy
August 26, 2012 By
One of the crucial tenants of humoral theory is the belief that females are of a colder and wetter disposition than the hotter, drier nature of males. To achieve optimal health the humors needed to be in perfect balance, as seen in all recommendations for food, drink, preparation and even environment.
The Rooster‘s Egg: Maternal Metaphors and Medieval Men
August 15, 2012 By
This dissertation will explore the symbolism surrounding women‘s bodies, particularly menstruating, lactating, and pregnant bodies, which concerned theologians, moralists, and medical writers alike.
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