The word 'plague', in defining a lethal epidemic, was coined by the physician Galen (l. 130-210 CE) who lived through the Antonine Plague (165 - c. 180/190 CE) but the disease was recorded long before...
In modern medicine, urine samples are routinely examined in laboratories to obtain clinical information about a patient. This procedure, known as urinalysis, developed from an older medical process called uroscopy.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming and we are onto Medieval Medicine; with today giving a brief overview of the state of things before providing some insight into how the healers of the time went out treating that nasty cough of yours. Medicine (De medicina) is the art of either restoring the body to health, or otherwise protecting it against known harms; its practice was not just kept to the confines of physicians (medicus) but also by what people wore and ate of their own volition. There were three schools of medicine brought forward from the ancients into the medieval sphere; these are the Methodical school, an advocate of remedies and charms believed at the time to have been invented by Apollo. The second is the Empirical school and it is based upon using experience and experimental results to cure a patient; this was believed to be founded by Aesculapius. The final school, the Logical/rational school, was founded by Hippocrates; it is about focusing on characteristics such as age, region or type of illness in a rational study in an attempt to discern the cause of a disease, and through this knew knowledge of the cause to cure it. So, to break it down: Empiricists = advocates of experience alone. Logicians = utilizing both experience and reasoning to find causes. Methodicians = "take no account of reasoning from principles, nor of circumstances, but only actual diseases" (Isidore, Etymologies IV.iv) From these three schools of thought we can deduce which one was the most favoured by the learned during the medieval period; as a hint, it is not Methodical. Onto how the human body was mapped then, and the first thing we find is that the Medieval period really loved symmetry; there are four humors which correspond to the four elements. This is the basic layout; Humor Element Blood (sanguis) Air Bile (Choler) Fire Black Bile (Melancholia) Earth Phlegm Water It was believed that all disease came from imbalance within the four humors; for if they increased beyond "their natural course" they caused sickness. (The idea of a "natural" course in nature is an idea that permeates all of medieval scholarship, a planet would follow its natural course, gravity was merely an item heading towards its natural place, all things in existence had a "natural" direction whereupon things went smoothly and only if it were hindered did unpleasant events occur.) There were also two types of illness, acute and chronic, that were assigned humors also; acute illness is a disease that either strikes swiftly and passes or causes death imminently - to this was ascribed the humors "blood" and "bile". A chronic illness was a disease that was longstanding, and this was attributed to an imbalance within "Black Bile" and "Phlegm". Finally, each humor was attributed characteristics like so; So, you can see the direct correlation; Physician "you have a runny nose - therefore you have too much phlegm. You are cold and moist - therefore the best way to cure this is to place you in a warm dry place next to the fire". Or just drink whiskey (Blair Athol), my preferred treatment of choice. Next Time: Medicine continued!
Fascinating and strange medieval images of the human body.
I've put together 10 paintings from the medieval times that I feel are weird, funny and just plain creepy! How these were the subjects is beyond me.
In modern medicine, urine samples are routinely examined in laboratories to obtain clinical information about a patient. This procedure, known as urinalysis, developed from an older medical process called uroscopy.
Spring is finally here with spells of sunshine, birds singing and flowers blooming! It’s the perfect time of year to explore medieval gardens and their many uses. Gardens during this period were highly practical and used to grow both food produce and medicinal plants. The British Library houses a blooming...
Before there was Grey's Anatomy, there was art!
A rich study of the middle ages in Europe and the Middle East, brings this much maligned period to life
Before there was Grey's Anatomy, there was art!
By Jenny Weston Despite my love for all manuscripts, I admit that I harbor particular enthusiasm for the curiously tantalizing ‘medieval medical manuscript’. Whether they contain graphi…
A group of German researchers is bringing to light the medicinal wisdom of the Middle Ages.
Medicinal Herb Book [opium: ' papava' above or Papapver as the genus name is nowadays] ...
In honor of Amy Stewart - author of "Wicked Plants" - and her free talk at the nursery on Sunday, April 10 at 11 am - we present you with...
This is one of the most popular businesses in these medieval fairs. Check notes for English translations. See on blog.
The incomparable Michael Sappol--author of A Traffic of Dead Bodies, curator of Dream Anatomy, and historian at the National Library of Medicine--recently traveled to Sweden where he encountered the curious 15th century illuminated vellum scroll seen above. In the following post, Mike tells us more about this scroll, and its idiosyncratic anatomical visualizations: I recently traveled to sunny Sweden to participate in an international conference on “The History of Medicine in Practice.” Along the way I got to visit some historical medical collections, talk to historians, curators, archivists, rare book specialists, publishers and librarians, and see amazing objects. Today’s post is about one amazing object: De Arte Phisicali et de Cirurgica (The Art of the Physician and the Surgeon), a long vellum scroll — 542 cm (17 feet 9 inches) by 36 cm (1 foot 2 inches)! It dates from the year 1412 and resides today in the National Library of Sweden (in Swedish, Kungliga Biblioteket, “The Royal Library,” but since Swedes hold their egalitarian ideals very dear, usually translated as “The National Library”). The manuscript is composed of six skins of vellum (that’s calf-skin!) sewn together. It features numerous painted color illustrations, along with a text written by John Arderne (1307-ca. 1390), a master surgeon who lived in Newark in the county of Nottingham, England. How it got to Sweden is a bit of a mystery, but experts believe that it traveled over the North Sea sometime in the 1420s, sent by King Henry IV of England to help his daughter, Princess Philippa. She had been married off to King Erik of Sweden in 1406 at the tender age of 12 (and died in 1430 at age 34 of a miscarriage). The text (in Latin) contains standard medical wisdom of its time: advice on diagnosis and how to treat various conditions in the form of a discussion of cases, along with helpful recipes. (A knowledge of astrology helps with all of this.) The scroll is also supplied with a large number of good-natured, even comical, illustrations. Mostly they show the usual diseases and problems (dysentery, dropsy, colic, pleurisy, belching, insomnia, bellyache) and the usual therapeutic methods (bleeding, cautery, purging and plastering). There are also pictures of surgical instruments, poisonous animals (watch out for toads!) and typical problems of delivering a baby. What has attracted the most attention from scholars, and even the public, are the scroll’s painted illustrations of the anatomized body, split open like a book or a butchered animal. These occupy the middle of the scroll, between the two main columns of text (which makes no comment on them), and are very rare for the period, really quite astonishing. I know all this because of a fine book recently published on the Arderne scroll by Fri Tanke Förlag (Free Thought Press) and the Hagströmer Library, as part of their bibliographic publication series: John Arderne, De Arte Phisicali et de Cirurgia, trans., commentary, Torgny Svenberg and Peter Murray Jones; afterword, Eva LQ Sandgren (Stockholm: Fri Tanke Förlag – Hagströmer Biblioteket, 2014). Michael Sappol History of Medicine Division National Library of Medicine All images from De Arte Phisicali et de Cirurgica (The Art of the Physician and the Surgeon), courtesy of the National Library of Sweden
But medieval scholars are skeptical about this latest attempt to decipher the world's "most mysterious book"
Du bist auf der Suche nach schön schauriger Halloween-Deko für dich und deine "halloween-verrückten" Freunde – hier bist du richtig
The incomparable Michael Sappol--author of A Traffic of Dead Bodies, curator of Dream Anatomy, and historian at the National Library of Medicine--recently traveled to Sweden where he encountered the curious 15th century illuminated vellum scroll seen above. In the following post, Mike tells us more about this scroll, and its idiosyncratic anatomical visualizations: I recently traveled to sunny Sweden to participate in an international conference on “The History of Medicine in Practice.” Along the way I got to visit some historical medical collections, talk to historians, curators, archivists, rare book specialists, publishers and librarians, and see amazing objects. Today’s post is about one amazing object: De Arte Phisicali et de Cirurgica (The Art of the Physician and the Surgeon), a long vellum scroll — 542 cm (17 feet 9 inches) by 36 cm (1 foot 2 inches)! It dates from the year 1412 and resides today in the National Library of Sweden (in Swedish, Kungliga Biblioteket, “The Royal Library,” but since Swedes hold their egalitarian ideals very dear, usually translated as “The National Library”). The manuscript is composed of six skins of vellum (that’s calf-skin!) sewn together. It features numerous painted color illustrations, along with a text written by John Arderne (1307-ca. 1390), a master surgeon who lived in Newark in the county of Nottingham, England. How it got to Sweden is a bit of a mystery, but experts believe that it traveled over the North Sea sometime in the 1420s, sent by King Henry IV of England to help his daughter, Princess Philippa. She had been married off to King Erik of Sweden in 1406 at the tender age of 12 (and died in 1430 at age 34 of a miscarriage). The text (in Latin) contains standard medical wisdom of its time: advice on diagnosis and how to treat various conditions in the form of a discussion of cases, along with helpful recipes. (A knowledge of astrology helps with all of this.) The scroll is also supplied with a large number of good-natured, even comical, illustrations. Mostly they show the usual diseases and problems (dysentery, dropsy, colic, pleurisy, belching, insomnia, bellyache) and the usual therapeutic methods (bleeding, cautery, purging and plastering). There are also pictures of surgical instruments, poisonous animals (watch out for toads!) and typical problems of delivering a baby. What has attracted the most attention from scholars, and even the public, are the scroll’s painted illustrations of the anatomized body, split open like a book or a butchered animal. These occupy the middle of the scroll, between the two main columns of text (which makes no comment on them), and are very rare for the period, really quite astonishing. I know all this because of a fine book recently published on the Arderne scroll by Fri Tanke Förlag (Free Thought Press) and the Hagströmer Library, as part of their bibliographic publication series: John Arderne, De Arte Phisicali et de Cirurgia, trans., commentary, Torgny Svenberg and Peter Murray Jones; afterword, Eva LQ Sandgren (Stockholm: Fri Tanke Förlag – Hagströmer Biblioteket, 2014). Michael Sappol History of Medicine Division National Library of Medicine All images from De Arte Phisicali et de Cirurgica (The Art of the Physician and the Surgeon), courtesy of the National Library of Sweden
A 600-year-old manuscript—written in a script no one has ever decoded, filled with cryptic illustrations, its origins remaining to this day a mystery…. It’s not as satisfying a plot, say, of a National Treasure or Dan Brown thriller, certainly not as action-packed as pick-your-Indiana Jones….
A handful of manuscripts remain which give researchers valuable insights into medieval science.
All about men's undershirts: sleeveless, crew- & v-neck, skin tones, where to buy, how to make an invisible shirt, and DO's & DON'TS.
Before there was Grey's Anatomy, there was art!
Ladies in today's world who are having difficulty conceiving children face a barrage of judgements and unsolicited advice. "Have you tried IVF? Acupuncture? Relaxing? A private island in the Caribbean with your own personal fertility shaman? It'll…
Abridged Version of “De arte phisicali de cirurgia”, “Fistula in ano”, Including an Obstetrical Treatise "Manuscript X 188 in the National Library of Sweden dates to around 1425–35 and contains two...
di Giovanni Monastra biologo ricercatore, è il coordinatore scientifico dell’ Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione (Inran), presso il quale dirige vari progetti, tra…
Tra i luoghi comuni che vengono spesso tirati in mezzo sulla medicina medievale, c’è quello del “tabù dell’anatomia”: ovvero i medici medievali non avrebbero conosciuto il corpo umano che attravers…
The present paper is an endeavor to study some issues related to medical care and hospital during the Middle Ages.
