Pain in Medieval and Modern Contexts
The interplay between Christian religious belief and medicine in the High Middle Ages was complicated.
A Medieval Cure for Baldness
Medieval men also worried about losing their hair. They could turn to Hildegard of Bingen to provide them with a cure for baldness.
Bites and stings: A medieval perspective
Venomous creatures and their poisons loom large in the medieval medical European imagination.
Book Review: A Medieval Woman’s Companion by Susan Signe Morrison
Susan Signe Morrison’s book, “A Medieval Woman’s Companion” brings the contributions of medieval women, famous and obscure, to the forefront in this fantastic introductory text.
The Emotional Lives of Epidemics: Hate and Compassion from the Plague of Athens to AIDS
From an interdisciplinary array of scholars, a consensus has emerged: invariably, epidemics in past times provoked class hatred, blamed the ‘other’, and victimized the victims of epidemic diseases.
Complaining about doctors in the 12th century
Doctors were around in the Middle Ages too, and according to one twelfth-century writer, many of them were failing their patients.
Both “illness and temptation of the enemy”: melancholy, the medieval patient and the writings of King Duarte of Portugal (r. 1433–38)
Recent historians have rehabilitated King Duarte of Portugal, previously maligned and neglected, as an astute ruler and philosopher. There is still a tendency, however, to view Duarte as a depressive or a hypochondriac, due to his own description of his melancholy in his advice book, the Loyal Counselor.
‘Better off dead than disfigured’? The challenges of facial injury in the premodern past
This paper argues that facial disfigurement has been neglected in the historiography of medieval Europe, and suggests some reasons for this oversight before examining the evidence from legal and narrative texts.
The Middle Ages Contributions to Cardiovascular Medicine
The objective of this paper is to describe the knowledge drawn up from the Middle Ages about the cardiovascular system, its understanding and therapeutic approach to cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons.
Magic and Medicine in a Man’s World: The Medieval Woman as both Healer and Witch
This paper intends to show that a combination of competition and strong medieval gender roles contributed to the tilting of the public perception of women healers from well-respected necessities to witches and charlatans, ultimately leading to the professionalization of medicine.
The early history of glaucoma: the glaucous eye (800 BC to 1050 AD)
To the ancient Greeks, glaukos occasionally described diseased eyes, but more typically described healthy irides, which were glaucous (light blue, gray, or green).
Hearing medieval voices
Hearing voices without external stimuli: in the popular imagination, auditory hallucination is most often understood as a symptom of severe mental disorders.
The Diagnosis and Treatment of Wounds in the Old English Medical Collections: Anglo-Saxon Surgery?
Early medieval England was a dangerous environment with a high risk of physical harm, which could result from warfare, day-to-day lawlessness, or accidents in the home or the workplace.
The Mandrake Plant and Six Anglo-Saxon Cures
Plants were a vital source of potential cures in the Middle Ages, and the mandrake was considered to be one of the most powerful of these. However, you needed a hungry dog to help you catch one!
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.
Heavenly Healing or Failure of Faith? Partial Cures in Later Medieval Canonization Processes
When thinking of miracles as source material for the conceptions and everyday life of the laity, miracles with remaining symptoms provide an interesting sub-type of a healing miracle.
Medieval Advice for Students Away From Home
By Danièle Cybulskie Over the last few weeks, countless parents have kissed their sons and daughters and sent them off to study away…
Medical Practice, Urban Politics and Patronage: The London ‘Commonalty’ of Physicians and Surgeons of the 1420s
Medical practice in fifteenth-century England is often seen as suffering from the low status and unregulated practice of which Thomas Linacre later complained.
Did Henry VIII Suffer from Head Trauma?
How did the champion of the church become the killer of queens? Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine think it may have been traumatic head injury.
‘Do You Not Know I am a Healer?’ Royal Authority and Miracles of Healing in High Medieval Lives of Kings
Today I’d like to place in comparative perspective the reputations for miraculous healing achieved by two high medieval royal saints: Edward the Confessor of England and Óláfr Haraldsson of Norway.
Monastic medicine: medieval herbalism meets modern science
A group of German researchers is bringing to light the medicinal wisdom of the Middle Ages.
The Herbal Cures of Hildegard von Bingen – was she right?
There is a 1 in 10,000,000 chance that Hildegard von Bingen was just making up her list of medical cures based on herbs and plants.
The Ideal Medieval Hospital: St. John of Jerusalem
Let’s take five minutes to look at what may be the most famous hospital of the Middle Ages: The Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem
The Healing Power of a Garden – A Medieval View
When it came to healthy living, medieval people were careful on what they ate. It was commonly believed that foods could offer good (and not-so-good) consequences to the body, but it was hard to remember what ailments a certain food could cure. In steps Henry of Huntingdon to offer us a poetic guide to the healthy and medicinal qualities of what you can find in a garden.