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The Medicine of the Friars in Medieval England
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2024
About this book
Drawing upon a surprising wealth of evidence found in surviving manuscripts, this book restores friars to their rightful place in the history of English health care.
Friars are often overlooked in the picture of health care in late medieval England. Physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, barbers, midwives - these are the people we think of immediately as agents of healing; whilst we identify university teachers as authorities on medical writings. Yet from their first appearance in England in the 1220s to the dispersal of the friaries in the 1530s, four orders of friars were active as healers of every type. Their care extended beyond the circle of their own brethren: patients included royalty, nobles and bishops, and they also provided charitable aid and relief to the poor. They wrote about medicine too. Bartholomew the Englishman and Roger Bacon were arguably the most influential authors, alongside the Dominican Henry Daniel. Nor should we forget the anonymous Franciscan compilers of the Tabula medicine, a handbook of cures, which, amongst other items, contains case histories of friars practising medicine. Even after the Reformation, these texts continued to circulate and find new readers amongst practitioners and householders.
This book restores friars to their rightful place in the history of English health care, exploring the complex, productive entanglement between care of the soul and healing of the body, in both theoretical and practical terms. Drawing upon the surprising wealth of evidence found in the surviving manuscripts, it brings to light individuals such as William Holme (c. 1400), and his patient the duke of York (d. 1402), who suffered from swollen legs. Holme also wrote about medicinal simples and gave instructions for dealing with eye and voice problems experienced by his brother Franciscans. Friars from the thirteenth century onwards wrote their medicine differently, reflecting their religious vocation as preachers and confessors.
Friars are often overlooked in the picture of health care in late medieval England. Physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, barbers, midwives - these are the people we think of immediately as agents of healing; whilst we identify university teachers as authorities on medical writings. Yet from their first appearance in England in the 1220s to the dispersal of the friaries in the 1530s, four orders of friars were active as healers of every type. Their care extended beyond the circle of their own brethren: patients included royalty, nobles and bishops, and they also provided charitable aid and relief to the poor. They wrote about medicine too. Bartholomew the Englishman and Roger Bacon were arguably the most influential authors, alongside the Dominican Henry Daniel. Nor should we forget the anonymous Franciscan compilers of the Tabula medicine, a handbook of cures, which, amongst other items, contains case histories of friars practising medicine. Even after the Reformation, these texts continued to circulate and find new readers amongst practitioners and householders.
This book restores friars to their rightful place in the history of English health care, exploring the complex, productive entanglement between care of the soul and healing of the body, in both theoretical and practical terms. Drawing upon the surprising wealth of evidence found in the surviving manuscripts, it brings to light individuals such as William Holme (c. 1400), and his patient the duke of York (d. 1402), who suffered from swollen legs. Holme also wrote about medicinal simples and gave instructions for dealing with eye and voice problems experienced by his brother Franciscans. Friars from the thirteenth century onwards wrote their medicine differently, reflecting their religious vocation as preachers and confessors.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Peter Murray Jones
PETER MURRAY JONES is a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, UK.
Reviews
This book restores friars to their rightful place in the history of English health care, exploring the complex, productive entanglement between care of the soul and healing of the body, in both theoretical and practical terms.
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Jones's work is an interdisciplinary tour de force. The combination of attention to detail, reach, and interdisciplinary adroitness makes Peter Murray Jones's book as necessary to the modern medievalist as the Tabula medicine was to the mendicant-physician. It is in every way a success.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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List of Illustrations
ix -
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Preface
xi -
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List of Abbreviations
xv -
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Introduction
1 -
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1 Friars Practising Medicine
35 -
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2 William Holme, medicus
73 -
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3 Writing Medicine Differently
97 -
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4 The Medical Culture of Friars
123 -
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5 Souls and Bodies
163 -
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6 Creeping into Homes
193 -
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7 The Legacy of Friars’ Medicine
215 -
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Conclusion
239 -
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Appendix 1: Friar practitioners
243 -
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Appendix 2: Friars as medical authors and compilers
245 -
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Bibliography
247 -
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Index of Manuscripts
279 -
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General Index
281
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
February 14, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781805431671
Original publisher:
York Medieval Press
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781805431671
Keywords for this book
Tabula medicine; Franciscans; medical writing; medicus; Dominican; Liber uricrisiarum; Roger Bacon; Speculum naturale; Vincent de Beauvais; Bartholomaeus Anglicus; De proprietatibus rerum; Thomas de Cantimpré; Liber de natura rerum; Carmelites; Augustinians; Alchemy; Astrology; Piers Plowman
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
