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Fresh perspectives on how medical texts, broadly construed, were recorded, perceived and utilised.
The past few decades have witnessed significant shifts in the scholarly investigation of early medieval medicine and its texts, moving far beyond outdated stereotypes of stagnation and superstition, not least via close study of the manuscript evidence, which has enabled a better appreciation of the processes involved in the recording and transfer of medical knowledge and healing practices. This book builds on these recent developments. With a particular focus on transmission, translation and transformation, the essays collected here offer detailed explorations of sources, contexts, producers and uses, examining material ranging from Bald's Leechbook and continental Latin recipe collections to Old Norse sagas and a Byzantine Greek treatise on venomous animals (Book V of Paul of Aegina's Pragmateia). Several contributors explore Old English's multifarious connections with the Latin tradition, discussing charms, obstetric and gynaecological texts, as well as the Peri didaxeon. The volume concludes with an afterword by Peregrine Horden on future directions of study, inviting further research into this vibrant and growing field.
Chapter 3 is available as Open Access under the Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND. The article received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 101018645).
The past few decades have witnessed significant shifts in the scholarly investigation of early medieval medicine and its texts, moving far beyond outdated stereotypes of stagnation and superstition, not least via close study of the manuscript evidence, which has enabled a better appreciation of the processes involved in the recording and transfer of medical knowledge and healing practices. This book builds on these recent developments. With a particular focus on transmission, translation and transformation, the essays collected here offer detailed explorations of sources, contexts, producers and uses, examining material ranging from Bald's Leechbook and continental Latin recipe collections to Old Norse sagas and a Byzantine Greek treatise on venomous animals (Book V of Paul of Aegina's Pragmateia). Several contributors explore Old English's multifarious connections with the Latin tradition, discussing charms, obstetric and gynaecological texts, as well as the Peri didaxeon. The volume concludes with an afterword by Peregrine Horden on future directions of study, inviting further research into this vibrant and growing field.
Chapter 3 is available as Open Access under the Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND. The article received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 101018645).
Price: $130.00
Pages: 322
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: York Medieval Press
Series: Health and Healing in the Middle Ages
Publication Date:
18 November 2025
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781914049316
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Middle Ages (449-1066), European history: medieval period, middle ages, HISTORY / Europe / Medieval, MEDICAL / History, History of medicine
Contents
List of Tables
Contributors
Preface and Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Note on Translation
Introduction: Currents in the Study of Early Medieval Medicine
Debby Banham, Claire Burridge and Lea Olsan
Part I: Transmission: Greek, Old English, and Latin
1. Paul of Aegina on Venomous Animals: An Introduction and Translation
Christine Salazar†
2. The Beginnings of English Medicine: Confluences and Crosscurrents in Bald's Leechbook and Leechbook III
Debby Banham and Christine Voth
3. Early Medieval Recipe Collections: Continuity, Change, and the Carolingian Context
Claire Burridge
Part II: Translation: Words into Practices
4. Charms in Late Antique and Early Medieval Medicine: Transmission and Transformation
Lea Olsan
5. Pharmaceutical Tools in the Early Middle Ages: Knowledge and Practice in Medical Recipes
Jeffrey Doolittle
Part III: Transformation: Texts and Later Adaptations
6. Gynaecology in the Priory? Contextualising the Gynaecological Fragments in London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A III
Conan T. Doyle
7. Use and Elaboration of Latin Sources in Later Anglo-Saxon England: The Peri didaxeon
Danielle Maion
8. Signs and Portents: Epidemic Disease and the Supernatural in Icelandic Sagas
Christina Lee
Afterword: Recent Developments and Future Agenda
Peregrine Horden
Audrey Meaney: An Appreciation
Audrey Meaney and the Study of Early Medieval Medicine
Debby Banham and Lea Olsan
Memories of Audrey Meaney
Catherine Hills
A Bibliography of Audrey Meaney's Work
Bibliography
Index of Manuscripts
General Index
List of Tables
Contributors
Preface and Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Note on Translation
Introduction: Currents in the Study of Early Medieval Medicine
Debby Banham, Claire Burridge and Lea Olsan
Part I: Transmission: Greek, Old English, and Latin
1. Paul of Aegina on Venomous Animals: An Introduction and Translation
Christine Salazar†
2. The Beginnings of English Medicine: Confluences and Crosscurrents in Bald's Leechbook and Leechbook III
Debby Banham and Christine Voth
3. Early Medieval Recipe Collections: Continuity, Change, and the Carolingian Context
Claire Burridge
Part II: Translation: Words into Practices
4. Charms in Late Antique and Early Medieval Medicine: Transmission and Transformation
Lea Olsan
5. Pharmaceutical Tools in the Early Middle Ages: Knowledge and Practice in Medical Recipes
Jeffrey Doolittle
Part III: Transformation: Texts and Later Adaptations
6. Gynaecology in the Priory? Contextualising the Gynaecological Fragments in London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A III
Conan T. Doyle
7. Use and Elaboration of Latin Sources in Later Anglo-Saxon England: The Peri didaxeon
Danielle Maion
8. Signs and Portents: Epidemic Disease and the Supernatural in Icelandic Sagas
Christina Lee
Afterword: Recent Developments and Future Agenda
Peregrine Horden
Audrey Meaney: An Appreciation
Audrey Meaney and the Study of Early Medieval Medicine
Debby Banham and Lea Olsan
Memories of Audrey Meaney
Catherine Hills
A Bibliography of Audrey Meaney's Work
Bibliography
Index of Manuscripts
General Index