And yet a number of regulations were imposed so that “the living are not made ill by rotten and corrupt food,” with further bans to minimize the “stink and corruption” considered harmful to Pistoia’s citizens. Demonstrating similar sanitation concerns, bodies of the dead were to remain in place until properly enclosed in a wooden box “to avoid the foul stench which comes from dead bodies” moreover, graves were dug “ two and a half arms-lengths deep.”īutchers and retailers nevertheless remained open. These civic ordinances stipulated against importing linen or woollen cloths that might carry the disease. Guards were placed at the city’s gates to prevent travellers entering or leaving. In 1348, to prevent the illness from spreading through the Tuscan region of Pistoia, strict fines were enforced against the movement of peoples. Quarantine and self-isolation were necessary measures. Yet they also acknowledged the limitations in finding a “ sure explanation and perfect understanding,” quoting Pliny to the effect that “ some accidental causes of storms are still uncertain, or cannot be explained.” Self-isolation and travel bans Not content with lingering uncertainty, Parisian masters turned towards ancient wisdom and compiled a book of existing philosophical and medical knowledge. On the pope’s orders, anatomical examinations were carried out in many Italian cities “to discover the origins of the disease.” When the corpses were opened up, all victims were found to have “ infected lungs.” So let us honor our medieval medical ancestors as we admire and enjoy these products of their minds and hands.Étienne Colaud’s ‘A meeting of doctors at the university of Paris.’ From the ‘Chants royaux’ manuscript. The medieval physician's recognition of the inevitability of death and his responsibility to help his patient to a tranquil and orderly departure has resonance in the hospice movement of this century. The medieval interest in "regimen," that is, diet and "life style," reminds us that the emphasis on preventive medicine and personal responsibility for one's health is not a new idea. Moreover, even among the texts of purely historical interest, we may find ideas and attitudes that are still relevant. But this progress rests upon the work of many generations, among them the medieval thinkers who embraced new ideas and spread them through their writing and teaching. Though Gothic cathedrals and troubadour songs are as beautiful now as they were 800 years ago, our progress in medical knowledge and application is undeniable. Sound therapeutic foundations were laid in the concern with accurate diagnosis and in the insistence on treating the causes behind symptoms. Though there is much in medieval medical theory and practice that we find fantastical, laughable, or horrifying, the adoption of the Hippocratic corpus invigorated attempts to explain disease by natural causes and to base healing on rational principles. England, as part of the Norman-Angevin world, was more closely connected to the European continent, politically and culturally, than any time until the present day, and participated in all these developments.
Medicine, in particular, was fed by these streams, as the writings of Hippocrates and Galen were translated into Latin, mainly from Arabic translations, but also directly from Greek. Like the Renaissance of the 15th/16th centuries, the educated people of 12th century western Europe sought to restore a connection with the culture of the classical period. The great European universities were beginning to take shape.
New ideas infused the practice of architecture, music, poetry, and theology. The 12th century, when our manuscript was written, saw exciting developments in many areas of western European culture. In its honor, we have focused on medicine and medical literature in medieval England, on the sources and transmission of the manuscript texts, and on their later manifestations. Our exhibit celebrates the medieval manuscript holdings of the National Library of Medicine, particularly our 12th-century English manuscript, Treatises on Medicine, lost for nearly 50 years and recently returned.
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