The Isagoge of Pseudo-Soranus. An analysis of the contents of a medieval introduction to the art of medicine (original) (raw)
Related papers
2009
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. It does, however, have its particular characteristics, and understanding its source materials, methods, and analytical limitations may help those not trained in the field better navigate, explore and potentially contribute to its possibilities for illuminating the intersections of medicine and health with other aspects of medieval culture. Although this article focuses primarily on western Europe, many of its observations are also relevant to the Islamic world and Byzantium precisely because all three cultures shared many of the same intellectual traditions and social structures. The attached bibliography serves as a general introduction to the current state of the field.
2005
This short essay (1) explains methods for researching the history of medical ideas in medieval Europe, which usually involves examination of medical texts; and (2) the history of medical practices and practitioners, which can be researched both through medical texts and a variety of other sources. On the former topic, I also address three problem areas in working with medical manuscripts: (a) the absence of any single dictionary devoted to medieval medical terminology; (b) the variety (and often, inconsistency) of technical abbreviations used in medical texts; and (c) the relationship between medical texts and the images that accompany them. The bibliography presented here is heavy on sources for England since at the time that's where the heaviest investment had been made in finding aids. Since 2005, an enormous number on online resources has become available. For an updated assessment of the general field of medieval medical history research, see Monica H. Green, “Integrative Medicine: Incorporating Medicine and Health into the Canon of Medieval European History,” History Compass 7, no. 4 (June 2009), 1218-45, doi: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00618.x.
A Cultural History of Medicine in the Middle Ages - front matter
A Cultural History of Medicine in the Middle Ages, 2021
The Middle Ages are well-known for the growth of universities and urban regulations, plague pandemics, increasingly sophisticated ways of causing injury in warfare, and abiding frameworks for health and illness provided by religion. Increasingly, however, archaeologists, historians and literary specialists have come together to flesh out the daily lives of medieval people at all levels of society, both in Christian Europe and the Islamic Mediterranean. A Cultural History of Medicine in the Middle Ages follows suit, but also brings new approaches and comparisons into the conversation. Through the investigation of poems, pottery, personal letters, recipes and petitions, and through a breadth of topics running from street-cleaning, cooking and amulets to religious treatises and death rituals, this volume accords new meaning and value to the period and those who lived it. Its chapters confirm that the study of latrines, patterns of manuscript circulation, miracle narratives, sermons, skeletons, metaphors and so on, have as much to tell us about attitudes towards health and illness as do medical texts. Delving within and beyond texts, and focusing on the sensory, the experiential, the personal, the body and the spirit, this volume celebrates and critiques the diverse and complex cultural history of medieval health and medicine.
González_Marrero_J. A._Innovation in Medieval Scientific Discourse _2018.pdf
Revista Chilena de Estudios Medievales, 2018
The Tacuinum sanitatis by the Persian Ibn Buṭlān (fifth/eleventh century) follows the contents of the Hippocratic treatises of the fifth and sixth centuries BC, emphasising the importance of diet as the balance between humans and their environment, and between food and physical exercise. We specifically study the content of the Latin version of Ibn Buṭlān’s Tacuinum sanitatis in Latin manuscript BnF 9333. In this version, Ibn Buṭlān’s arrangement of text in tables has been abandoned in favour of the laboriously sumptuous illustration of each explanatory footnote. We analyse the relationship between the Arab legacy and the development of Galenism in Europe, particularly regarding the acceptance of practical and preventative medicine that pursues humoral equilibrium as a guarantee of good health, and we report the initial results of our research into the textual and iconographic innovation of new ways of communicating scientific content in the Middle Ages.