Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death

Essays on the practical aspects of medieval European medicine.

Luis Garcia-Ballester (Edited by), Roger French (Edited by), Jon Arrizabalaga (Edited by), Andrew Cunningham (Edited by)

9780521158671, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 November 2010

418 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 2.2 cm, 0.58 kg

From the eleventh century to the Black Death in 1348 Europe was economically vigorous and expanding, especially in Mediterranean societies. In this world of growing wealth educational institutions were founded, the universities, and it was in these that a new form of medicine came to be taught and which widely influenced medical care throughout Europe. The essays in this collection focus on the practical aspects of medieval medicine. They explore how the learned medical men understood and coped with plague; the theory and practice of medical astrology, and of bleeding (phlebotomy) for the cure and prevention of illness. Several essays deal with the development and interrelations of the nascent medical profession and of Christian, Muslim and Jewish practitioners. Special emphasis is given to the practice of surgery, and the problems of recovering knowledge of a large proportion of medical care - that given by women - are also explored.

List of illustrations and tables
List of contributors and editors
Acknowledgements
Note on names
Introduction: practical medicine from Salerno to the Black Death Luis García-Ballester
1. Astrology in medical practice Roger French
2. The science and practice of medicine in the thirteenth century according to Guglielmo da Saliceto, Italian surgeon Jole Agrimi and Chiara Crisciani
3. How to write a Latin book on surgery: organizing principles and authorial devices in Gugleilmo da Saliceto and Dino del Garbo Nancy G. Siraisi
4. Derivation and revulsion: the theory and practice of medieval phlebotomy Pedro Gil-Sotres
5. Surgical texts and social contexts: physicians and surgeons in Paris, c. 1270 to 1430 Cornelius O'Boyle
6. Medical practice in Paris in the first half of the fourteenth century Danielle Jacquart
7. Royal surgeons and the value of medical learning: the Crown of Aragon, 1300–1350 Michael R. McVaugh
8. Facing the Black Death: perceptions and reactions of university medical practitioners Jon Arrizabalaga
9. John of Arderne and the Mediterranean tradition of scholastic surgery Peter Murray Jones
10. Documenting medieval women's medical practice Monica H. Green
11. A marginal learned medical world: Jewish, Muslim and Christian medical practitioners, and the use of Arabic medical sources in late medieval Spain Luis García-Ballester
Index.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX]