10 Ways Healthcare improved in the Middle Ages
Ten medieval medical advances, including hospitals, pharmacies, surgeries and dental care.
The remarkable world of hospitals, orphanages, and leprosaria, with Tim Miller
A conversation with Timothy Miller about philanthropic institutions in Constantinople, especially hospitals, orphanages, and leprosaria.
People in early medieval settlement had “very poor health,” study finds
New study on early medieval community reveals they suffered from many diseases and infections.
The Management and Daily Life of a Medieval Hospital
This article looks at the late medieval hospitals of the kingdom of France at the end of the Middle Ages and asks how they were managed, how large they were, and what daily life was like in these charitable institutions.
What was the biggest health problem of the Middle Ages?
The bubonic plague is often considered the greatest threat to human health during the Middle Ages. But a new study suggests that medieval…
The Trotula with Monica Green
In honour of the 20th anniversary of the publication of The Trotula, Danièle speaks with editor and translator Dr. Monica Green about this astonishing collection of medieval medical and cosmetic advice for women.
The Medieval Origins of Quarantine
The origins of quarantine date back to the Middle Ages, an idea that emerged in the wake of the Black Death.
Medieval Medicine with Winston E. Black
What happened when someone got sick in the Middle Ages? Medieval medicine and healthcare might be two of the most misunderstood aspects of the whole era. This week Danièle speaks with Winston E. Black about some of the myths we have about medicine in the Middle Ages.
BOOK REVIEW: A Year in the Life of Medieval England by Toni Mount
Author Toni Mount is back again, but this time with an in-depth look at daily life in Medieval England. Her book, A Year in the Life of Medieval England, explores war, medicine, marriage, disputes, work, and cooking. A fascinating almanac of bits and bobs about Medieval England from the most most mundane, to the most important events in its history.
BOOK REVIEW: Medieval Medicine: Its Mysteries and Science by Toni Mount
Our review of Toni Mount’s fascinating look at medicine in the Middle Ages in – Medieval Medicine: Its Mysteries and Science by Toni Mount.
Making the Medieval Relevant: Crossing Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Studies on Disease and Disability
A summary of a paper given by Professor Christina Lee at the University of Nottingham’s “Making the Medieval Relevant” Conference.
The Medieval Art of Medicine: A Poem
What was it like to be a physician in the Middle Ages? A poem by a 14th-century physician sheds a little light on the challenges of practicing medicine in his own time.
Dyes, Diets and Deodorants: Venetian Beauty Secrets Revealed
If you think it’s hard to keep up a beauty regime now, wait until you see what lengths the Venetians went to in order to be beautiful!
Sleepwalking and Murder in the Middle Ages
It happens that many people get up at night while asleep, take weapons or sticks, or ride a horse.What is the cause of this? What is the remedy?
The Cyrurgia of Albucasis and other works, 1500
Four surgical treatises, printed in the last year of the fifteenth century, make up the oldest illustrated printed book in the Sibbald Library. The second one, the Cyrurgia of Albucasis, is the most interesting and I shall deal only briefly with the others.
The Stench of Disease: Public Health and the Environment in Late-Medieval English towns and cities
This article explores the urban environmental concerns of late-medieval English towns and cities and argues that these urban areas had a form of public health.
Limitations imposed by wearing armour on Medieval soldiers’ locomotor performance
Our findings can predict age-associated decline in Medieval soldiers’ physical performance, and have potential implications in understanding the outcomes of past European military battles.
‘Royal’ pediculosis in Renaissance Italy: lice in the mummy of the King of Naples Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467-1496)
Pediculosis seems to have afflicted humans since the most ancient times and lice have been found in several ancient human remains. Examination of the head hair and pubic hair of the artificial mummy of Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467-1496), King of Naples, revealed a double infestation with two different species of lice…
Plague and Persecution: The Black Death and Early Modern Witch Hunts
The century or so from approximately 1550 to 1650 is a period during which witch-hunts reached unprecedented frequency and intensity. The circumstances that fomented the witch- hunts—persistent warfare, religious conflict, and harvest failures—had occurred before, but witch-hunts had never been so ubiquitous or severe.
Women Healers and the Medical Marketplace of 16th-Century Lyon
Women Healers and the Medical Marketplace of 16th-Century Lyon Alison Klairmont-Lingo Dynamis: Vol.19 (1999) Abstract Although women’s legal and marital status make them…
Sex and obscenity in medieval art
When researching early or ‘forbidden’ historical subjects it can be a considerable challenge finding primary sources that give a first-hand experience of contemporary events.
Phthiriasis: the riddle of the lousy disease
Of all the legendary and fantastic diseases of ancient times, phthiriasis, or the lousy (lisease, wvas the most intriguing and bizarre. In the corrupted humours of the sufferers of this disease, lice were believed to develop by spontaneous generation, and tumours full of these insects rose on the skin.
Anesthesia Drugs in the Medieval Muslim Era
In the Middle Ages, Christian Europe was in a state of intellectual stagnation and the theological doctrine that pain serves God’s purpose and must not be alleviated militated against the improvement in methods of narcosis. Nuland points out that the Middle Ages in Europe were dark ages so far as advances in the pharmacology of anesthesia were concerned.
Integrative Medicine: Incorporating Medicine and Health into the Canon of MedievalEuropean History
Hitherto peripheral (if not outright ignored) in general medieval historiography, medieval medical history is now a vibrant subdiscipline, one that is rightly attracting more and more attention from ‘mainstream’ historians and other students of cultural history.
Integrative Medicine: Incorporating Medicine and Health into the Canon of Medieval European History
Hitherto peripheral (if not outright ignored) in general medieval historiography, medieval medical history is now a vibrant subdiscipline, one that is rightlyattracting more and more attention from ‘mainstream’ historians and other studentsof cultural history.