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| Photo of the Recreated Medieval Garden in Turn. |
This is my first contribution to my A & S 50 depth project in period use of herbs. I am kind of cheating here because this doubles as background handout for the classes I am teaching my mundane apprentices on the history of herbal medicine, but I am trying to perfect the art of killing two birds with one stone as a form of time management.
I would like to address the misuse of the term "herbalism" in the SCA. The term is not period. You will not find an herbal printed before 1600 that uses it to define the professional use of plant medicine. As someone who writes and edits mundane histories on the subject, it is a little bit of a pet peeve that it is used incorrectly in the SCA. I have decided not to do it, any longer.
The term herbalist did arise in the late 1500's specifically referring to people who had also written herbals. Gerard, for example, was a Master of the Company of Barbers-Surgeons in London, and an herbalist. In the UK people using plant medicine were professional physicians, barber-surgeons, apothecaries, ritual folk healers (who went by various names), and women practicing physick or domestic medicine. I will post about these various professions later.
Prehistory
The earliest archeological documentation of foraging societies in the United Kingdom is fossilized footprints found near Happisburgh, Norfolk estimated to be some 850,000 to 900,000 years old, probably belonging to the long-extinct Hominid species Homo antecessor.Given these dates, we can compute that for well over 90 percent of Homo history, people in the Ireland and Britain lived their lives out in small groups of wandering foragers, consisting of 10-50 people, known as bands. The use of herbs as medicine predates written history.
Archeological findings from the Paleolithic period show that plants were being used medicinally as early as 60, 000 years ago. These centuries of trial-and-error experiments undoubtedly lead to the established herbal remedies as used by the earliest civilizations.
13,000-10,000 BCE Bølling-Allerød warming period – climactic event that made Northern European habitable
10,500 BCE – Brown bear bones found in Ireland with knife marks indicate the bear was butchered by humans.
9000 BCE Ireland - Remnants of a settlement have been found at Kilgreany Cave, Co. Waterford. Evidence of “rituals” used for curing.
8220 BCE Britain - Amesbury (8220 BCE) although the remains of a Mesolithic camp have been found near Thatchum. Again there is evidence of ritual healing.
Nomadic hunter-gatherer groups begin forming semi-permanent settlements in Ireland favoring riverine, lacustrine, and coastal locations within what was a heavily forested landscape. There is some evidence that it was this culture built stone circles in places where the Megalithic people built passage mounds.
7000 BCE River Bann area in North Ulster (Mount Sandal) Lived in houses. Fishing culture with basic form of agriculture. 81 % fish bones with the remainder being made up of mammal (15%) and bird bones (4%). The fish remains included species such as salmon (48%), trout (32%), eel (7%), bass and flounder. Semi-permanent settlements small family groups inhabited camps for the better part of the year in sturdy huts with internal hearths.
5760 BCE Dublin – Spencer Dock near the mouth of the River Liffey. Remains of up to five post and wattle Mesolithic fish traps.
Neolithic and Antiquity
The Neolithic period was also called the Megalithic Period because this is the culture that built passage mounds dolmens, and standing stones. Dolmens astrologically oriented to the East. Mythology does not offer insight into the original use or construction of the mounds. They were already objects of mythological conjecture by the Bronze Age.Diet changed from fish to domesticated animals and cereal crops including wheat, oats, barley, and rye. Saddle querns were used for grinding grains. Forestry clearance and a shift towards less mobile cultures marked this period, which makes sense given the time involved in constructing the giant mounds.
ca. 3180 BCE–2500 BCE. Skara Brae, archeologists determined that a certain puffball mushroom was used medicinally in this Neolithic Village partially due to archeological evidence and partially due to the fact that the practice continued in that area of Scotland until the early 1900’s. It is probably still practiced today.
ca. 3500 BCE Newgrange Passage Mound
In most ancient societies disease was attributed to divine causes and evil forces. Healing practices consisted of a pharmacopeia (plant, animal, mineral-based remedies) as well rituals intended to drive away evil spirits. Generally herbal agents formed only a small part of the repertoire of the healers of early cultures, for it was generally thought serious illnesses were of a spiritual, or supernatural nature, rather than physical causes.
ca.3000 BCE Sumerian clay slab from Nagpur, approximately 5000 years old. It comprised 12 recipes for drug preparation referring to over 250 various plants, some of them known for having strong alkaloids such as poppy, henbane, and mandrake.
2667 - 2648 BCE. Imhotep - Egypt
Imhotep is the first physician of written record, although he is quasi-mythical like Dian Cecht of the Gaels. He proposed that disease not to be dealt with solely by magic, but by science: observation, diagnosis, and treatment. This does not mean he didn’t believe that disease sometimes had a supernatural cause. Imhotep is credited with establishing Egyptian medical codes later recorded in the Egyptian manuscript listed below. These documents mentioned 800 medicinal agents, 700 of which were plant agents including pomegranate, castor oil plant, aloe, senna, garlic, onion, fig, willow, coriander, juniper, common centaury which were compounded sometimes with beer, honey, milk, or wine.
ca. 2500 BCE Shennong pen Ts’ao ching
This Chinese medical manuscript mentions 365 dried medicine plants many of which are still part of the Chinese Materia Medica including: Rhei rhisoma, camphor, Theae folium, Podophyllum, the great yellow gentian, ginseng, jimson weed, cinnamon bark, and ephedra.
ca. 1660 BCE Egyptian work Edwin Smith papyrus details, skeletal anatomy and surgical procedures.
ca. 1550 BCE Egyptian work Papyrus Ebers details incantations (charms) and plant remedies.
ca. 1069- 1046 BCE. Diagnostic Handbook written by the Mesopotamian physician Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa.
ca. 800 BCE Homer’s The Iliad and the Odyssey mention over 63 plant agents from the Greek and Egyptian medical practice. Many herbs get their Latin names from Greek heroes. Elecampane (Inula helenium) was named in honor of Elena the woman who the Trojan War was fought over. Plants from the genus Artemisia, which were believed to restore strength named for Greek word artemis, meaning “healthy.”
ca. 400 BCE. Irish Queen Macha Mong Ruadh establishes a called Broin Bherg (House of Sorrows) at Emain Macha (County Navan).
ca. 50 BCE. Atrebates tribe is known to have grown wheat, apples, blackberries, cherries, plums, poppies, coriander, dill, fennel, curry plant, marigold and mint. Predates Roman colonization of Britain.
ca. 1500 BCE- 1000 BCE. The Hindu text Atharvaveda first Indian text dealing with medicine, and containing prescriptions of herbs for various ailments.
In most ancient societies disease was attributed to divine causes and evil forces. Healing practices consisted of a pharmacopeia (plant, animal, mineral-based remedies) as well rituals intended to drive away evil spirits. Generally herbal agents formed only a small part of the repertoire of the healers of early cultures, for it was generally thought serious illnesses were of a spiritual, or supernatural nature, rather than physical causes.
ca.3000 BCE Sumerian clay slab from Nagpur, approximately 5000 years old. It comprised 12 recipes for drug preparation referring to over 250 various plants, some of them known for having strong alkaloids such as poppy, henbane, and mandrake.
2667 - 2648 BCE. Imhotep - Egypt
Imhotep is the first physician of written record, although he is quasi-mythical like Dian Cecht of the Gaels. He proposed that disease not to be dealt with solely by magic, but by science: observation, diagnosis, and treatment. This does not mean he didn’t believe that disease sometimes had a supernatural cause. Imhotep is credited with establishing Egyptian medical codes later recorded in the Egyptian manuscript listed below. These documents mentioned 800 medicinal agents, 700 of which were plant agents including pomegranate, castor oil plant, aloe, senna, garlic, onion, fig, willow, coriander, juniper, common centaury which were compounded sometimes with beer, honey, milk, or wine.
ca. 2500 BCE Shennong pen Ts’ao ching
This Chinese medical manuscript mentions 365 dried medicine plants many of which are still part of the Chinese Materia Medica including: Rhei rhisoma, camphor, Theae folium, Podophyllum, the great yellow gentian, ginseng, jimson weed, cinnamon bark, and ephedra.
ca. 1660 BCE Egyptian work Edwin Smith papyrus details, skeletal anatomy and surgical procedures.
ca. 1550 BCE Egyptian work Papyrus Ebers details incantations (charms) and plant remedies.
ca. 1069- 1046 BCE. Diagnostic Handbook written by the Mesopotamian physician Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa.
ca. 800 BCE Homer’s The Iliad and the Odyssey mention over 63 plant agents from the Greek and Egyptian medical practice. Many herbs get their Latin names from Greek heroes. Elecampane (Inula helenium) was named in honor of Elena the woman who the Trojan War was fought over. Plants from the genus Artemisia, which were believed to restore strength named for Greek word artemis, meaning “healthy.”
ca. 400 BCE. Irish Queen Macha Mong Ruadh establishes a called Broin Bherg (House of Sorrows) at Emain Macha (County Navan).
ca. 50 BCE. Atrebates tribe is known to have grown wheat, apples, blackberries, cherries, plums, poppies, coriander, dill, fennel, curry plant, marigold and mint. Predates Roman colonization of Britain.
Ayurvedic Medicine
ca. 1500 BCE- 1000 BCE. The Hindu text Atharvaveda first Indian text dealing with medicine, and containing prescriptions of herbs for various ailments.
ca. 1100 BCE. Indian Sushruta’s teachings are compiled in the text the Sushruta Samhita.
ca. 500 CE Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam written by Vagbhatta
ca. 500 CE- Charaka's teachings are compiled the text, Charaka Samhita Caraka claimed that garlic “maintains the fluidity of blood and strengthens the heart” This text combined the Suśruta Saṁhitā which is the work of Suśruta and Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam written by Vagbhatta are called the Bṛhattrayī and form the basis of Ayurvedic medicine.
ca. 1000 CE Mādhava contributed many new manuscripts to the practice of Āyurveda including the Mādhava Nidāna and Mādhava Cikitsā.
ca. 500 CE Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam written by Vagbhatta
ca. 500 CE- Charaka's teachings are compiled the text, Charaka Samhita Caraka claimed that garlic “maintains the fluidity of blood and strengthens the heart” This text combined the Suśruta Saṁhitā which is the work of Suśruta and Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayam written by Vagbhatta are called the Bṛhattrayī and form the basis of Ayurvedic medicine.
ca. 1000 CE Mādhava contributed many new manuscripts to the practice of Āyurveda including the Mādhava Nidāna and Mādhava Cikitsā.
Greco-Roman Medicine
The earliest Greek herbals, althou were were to form the basis of medical practice for centuries to come. The Romans assimilated Greek medical practice the same way they assimilated other Greek knowledge, but it is important to note that there three groups of medical practitioners with different theories. The Dogmatics, The Empirics, and the Methodics.
Turning away from the idea of medicinal rituals, the most important principle of early medical advice was balance and moderation in all things; however other principles put forth by these early physicians still inform modern medical practice. Urinalysis was used by the Greeks although then it was done primarily by using the senses; including taste. The Greeks also developed an energetic diagnostic system based on humors and the elemental qualities of foods and herbs, that many modern herbalists teach today. I will discuss this more completely at another time.
Hippocrates taught medicine on the Greek island of Cos. Hippocrates based his medical practice on the four humors and the presence of a vital force in the body called pneuma (Breath). This vital force is roughly the equivalent to the concept of prana in Ayurvedic Medicine. Hippocrates also gave the name ignis to the heat of metabolism which is equivalent to the term agni in Ayurvedic medicine. He is responsible for the introduction of the four humours blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm.
The Hippocratic Corpus (name of the collection of writings attributed to Hippocrates) was written by as many as 19 different authors over the course of many hundreds of years, yet the information in them is attributed to Hippocrates. Most of the writings seem to have been written in last decades of the 5th century BC and the first half of the 4th century BC and are probably those of a physicians college- perhaps the Cnidian school although that is conjecture.
i> Aristotle (384- 322 BCE)
Aristotle was the first Greek to propose that hot, cold, damp and dry were the qualities that made up all things. For example, fire is hot and dry. Aristotle catalogued medicinal properties of many herbs and spices by four qualities and established “The Golden Mean" calling for moderation in all things. In 330 BCE Alexander the Great established the Empirical School which followed the teachings of Aristotle. De Plantis is sometimes attributed to Aristotle but was likely written by one of those students, Nicolaus Damascenus around 15 BCE
Theophrastus (ca. 300BCE) De Causis Plantarium and De Historia Plantarium
Referred to as the Father of Botany, he assigned medicinal attributes to many spices, by a system of eight tastes, which was probably influenced by Chinese and Ayurvedic texts. He was the first to propose that herbs had higher contents of aromatic volatile oils when they grew in hot climates. Herbal agents he mentioned included cinnamon, iris rhizome, false hellebore, mint, pomegranate, cardamom, fragrant hellebore, and monkshood. He stressed the importance of humans becoming to tolerant of plant toxins by exposure and a gradual increase in dosage. This method of avoiding poisoning was used successfully by some heads-of-state.
Nicander of Colophon (c. 200 BCE) - Theriaca, Alexipharmaca
Interesting because his family was the hereditary line of priests to Apollo. He wrote extensively on venoms and plant poisons in the pentameter poem Theriaca and his book Alexipharmaca. I have a French version, but have yet to locate an English version.
Agnodice of Athens (c.325 BCE)
Female physician put on trial for pretending to be a man to practice medicine. Her wealthy female patrons banded together and had the law repealed.
Virgil (70-19 BCE)
Wrote a compendium on Greek and Roman agricultural practice and country life called the Georgics.
A Cornelius Celsus - (ca 25 BCE - 50 CE ) De Medicina
Not much is known about him other than the fact that he was a contemporary of Pliny the Elder and Columula who frequently cites his knowledge of agriculture in De Re Rustic. It was unlikely that he was a physician, but Roman nobles were typically well schooled in medicine as it was useful to them in the management of their estates.
Scribonius Largus (ca, 1-50 CE) Compositiones Medicamentorum
He is probably most significant to English medicine because he was the physician who accompanied Claudius when he invaded Britain
Pliny - (23-79 CE) - Naturalis Historia
Pliny was one of those typical early polymaths who hung around with the emperor Vespasian. He was a commander in the army/navy and spent a lot of his free time investigating the flora and fauna of areas he traveled during his service, as well as their uses. He compiled it all in what was one of the first encyclopedic set of volumes.
Dioscorides - (c. 40 - 90 CE) - De Materia Medica 50-68 CE
Dioscorides' De Materia Medica was probably the most influential herbal manuscript ever written. It contained information on over 600 plants used for medicinal purposes and those uses he described were copied and passed down many medical documents written up until the 17th century.
Galen - (129-215 CE) - On the Natural Faculties, Art of Physick De temperamentis
This Greek physician studied at the Alexandrian medical school and became one of the most prominent physicians. Galen was known to have employed up to 20 scribes to write his works and over 600 treatises are attributed to this group known as the Galenic Corpus. He is probably most famous in the SCA for his Art of Physick as translated by Culpeper, but his work De Temperamentis which introduced the four temperaments was equally influential. He named the "sanguine", "choleric", "melancholic" and "phlegmatic" after the bodily humors, respectively and developed the physical description of these typologies.
Marcellus Empiricus (ca. 401CE) De Medicamentis Empiricis, Physicis, et Rationabilibus
I think the most significant thing about Empiricus is that he stole the work of Scribonius Largus and put it in this book without attribution, but he is definitely the more eloquent writer.
Abu Mūsā Jābir ibn Hayyān Jabirian (c. 721 – c. 815 CE) Book of Poisons
This physician's corpus is credited writing or translating thousands of medicinal texts dating to the 8th and 9th Century. Credited with inventing distillation equipment known as the Alembic and other lab equipment such as the retort.
Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (ca.800 - ca 870)
Al-Kindi was a philosopher from Baghdad who was charged by the Caliph al-Mamun to translate and comment on Greek documents in his possession. Al-Kindi is generally credited with creating the first rose hydrosol through distillation.
Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi (d. 990 CE) Kitāb Kāmil aṣ-Ṣināʿa aṭ-Ṭibbiyya
Masoudi wrote his text covering both medicine and psychology, but also delved into the subject of medical ethics, and how some diseases have a psychosomatic component. "Joy and contentment can bring a better living status to many who would otherwise be sick and miserable due to unnecessary sadness, fear, worry and anxiety."
Abu-Khasim Abulcasis (936-1030)
An alchemist/physician from Cordoba who wrote a surgical text know as the Tasrif. He is thought to have improved the design of the alembic and distillation process to the point of distilling wine and rosewater into "aqua vitae" to be drank for the medicinal purpose of extending longevity.
Abū Alī al-Ḥusayn ibnʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā (980-1037) Book of Healing, Cannon of Medicine
The Persian physician, Avicenna, wrote his herbal treatise, The Cannon of Medicine, around 1025 AD. It is likely his teachings being passed along in the Al-Andalus cookbook. He was noted for expanding on Galen's temperaments to include the mental. emotional and spiritual aspects of the typologies that we speak of today.
805 CE 1st hospital for general population Baghdad by Harun Al-Rashid.
Monastic communities were the primary source of Western European herbal knowledge during this period. Montecassino near Rome was noted for having translated a vast collection of Arabic medical texts that were translations of older Greek texts as well as their own treatises. Monks and scribes also preserved the Greco-Roman manuscripts by copying them, first in Latin and later in their native languages.
These monasteries were famous for their cloister gardens in which they grew most of the herbs they used in to provide medical care to their communities. Hospitals of this era often started as these herbal dispensaries. Walafrid Strabo (808-849 CE) wrote a Latin verse Hortulus that described such a garden. Monks and nuns were prohibited from spilling blood by Papal decree. They often sourced out that sort of work to tradesmen who eventually became recognized as barber-surgeons.
ca. 438 BCE St. Patrick is credited with codifying Brehon law, pre-Celtic Irish tribal law, in the Senchus Mor: These codes governed the establishment of hospitals and set fees for Irish physicians naming male physicians liaig and female physicians, banliaig. Medical treatment and nourishing food was made available for everyone who needed it, free hospitals for the sick poor. Every physician was required by law to maintain and train four medical students and unqualified physicians were prohibited from practicing.
580 CE Xenodochium at Mérida, was a xenodochium used as a hostel for pilgrims and a dispensary/clinic for local citizens.
Paulus Aegineta - (625-690 CE) - Medical Compendium in Seven Volumes
Aegineta was a practicing physician and a Byzantine Greek who documented the practice of medicine in encyclopedic form. The sixth book on surgery was still being referenced by chirurgeon in the early Renaissance.
650 CE Hôtel-Dieu de Paris was established by the church and wealthy Parisiennes to provide shelter and medical aid to the poor.
ca. 800 CE Charlemagne Capitularies
Charlemagne ordered medicinal plants to be grown on state-owned lands. 100 different plants were mentioned including sage, sea onion, iris, mint, common centaury, poppy and marsh mallow. He also decreed that a dispensary/hospital should be attached to each cathedral and monastery.
ca. 820 CE Monastic dispensary established that eventually became the School of Salerno. Founded by the Archdeacon Adelmus under the order of Charles the Great.
The High Middle Ages. 1000-1300 C.E.
This period was noted for several Anglo Saxon medical manuscripts as gathered by monastic scribes or those working for rulers.
Bald's Leechbooks
Compiled under King Alfred's reign and recorded by the scribe Cild. The third Leechbook is considered by most to most closely resemble a native English practice.
Herbarium of Pseudo Apuleii ( Old English Herbarium)
Translation of an earlier Greek work that was in circulation in England as early as the 9th century.
Lacnunga 1000 CE (London, BL Harley 585)
The title of this manuscript was given to it by its 19th century translator Cockayne. The unique structure of this manuscript leads scholars to believe that it may be a very early example of what was called a commonplace book, which were basically compendiums of information arranged as it was gathered popular in later years. I tend to think literate healers kept track of their methods and formulas, regardless of the era.
The manuscripts were an interesting mix of what must have been native beliefs such as stories of flying venoms and elf shot as naturalistic (supernatural) causes of illness. They developed a system of ritual methods of delivering medical preparations including the recitation of "charms." These charms were also was also seen in Gaelic medical practice and there seems to have been some cross-over as evidenced by Old Irish words used in the Anglo Saxon charms.
Schola Medica Salernitana
This medical school was the first and undoubtedly the most influential institution in medical history. It began as one of the monasterial dispensaries noted above at some point in the 9th century, and carried on throughout the Middle Ages . The Trotula is a compendium of the practice of women's care used by the physicians at that school in the 12th Century.
The picture illustrates the story of how Robert Duke of Normandy was saved by his wife who was
The Salernitan Medical School as it appears in a miniature of the Canon of Avicenna.
It illustrates a story of how Robert Duke of Normandy's wife was able to save his life
by following advice from school doctors.
Hospitals dedicated primarily to caring for the ill and injured were often associated with medical schools and really began to spring up during this period but many were still also bedehouses or almshouses where poor people with no means went for care.
1107 -St. Thomas Hospital - England
1255 -The Collège de St. Cosmé -Paris.
The Late Middle Age 1300- 1500
This period began with the Great Famine and the Bubonic Plague. During the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the professional medical sector consisted of three types of practitioner.
Physicians- Generally from the upper classes and trained at medical schoools on Greek medical theory. These were general practitioners who examined, diagnosed and prescribed but regardless of what you saw in Merlin, they weren't getting their hands dirty with the actual preparation of medicines or caring for the ill. That was generally left to the women or servants.
Chirurgeon/Surgeons- This separate branch of medicinal practice evolved during the time when the monastery hospitals were providing healthcare. Surgeons would do the dirty work that the monks/nuns were unable to perform due to religious restrictions on shedding blood. The first medical corporation in the British Isles was established in Ireland in 1446 when Henry VI established the Guild of St. Mary Magdalane for the barber-surgeons of Dublin. The continued to serve this role for the elitist physicians who came from noble families and didn't want to get dirty.
Apothecary- Members of the Pepperers' Guild and Spicers' Guilds were incorporated as the Worshipful Company of Grocers in 1428. Some of these tradesmen began to specialize in compounding of medicinal preparations and became known as spicer-apothecaries. They were trained through apprenticeship and compounded medicines using both herbs and alchemical preparations. They extended their practice to dispensing medical advice and midwifery. Quite a few were women. In 1421, a group of physicians unsuccessfully petitioned the English Parliament to decree “that no Woman use the pratyse of Fisyk under the same payne” of “long imprisonment” and a fine of forty pounds.” It would be another century or so before that would be successful.
During this period you see more documentation of the physician-family dynasties and translation of texts by monastic scribes. The Red Book of Hergest written just after 1382 contains medical knowledge attributed to a family referred to as the Physicians of Myddvai.
The Book of the O'Lees written in 1443, partly in Latin and partly in Irish detailed that family’s method of treating the common diseases of the time. Towards the end of this period Greek theories began to fall out of favor because they failed miserably at controlling the Plague and didn't touch the syphilis epidemic that arose at the same time.
Arnaldus de Villa Nova (c.1240 - 1311)
Catalan physician who studied at the University of Montpellier. He is credited with being the first to use distilled alcohol to extract constituents from a plant (tinctures), however some alchemical works credited to him were not published until the 1500's are considered to be falsely attributed. Proceed with caution when citing him.
The Early Renaissance 1500-1650
This is a period when herbals began to be published in earnest. Beginning with Banckes herbal in 1525 and The Grete Herbal published in 1529, medical professionals began to write larger and larger tomes on plants and their medical uses.
Professional organizations were established by government authorities which defined their scope-of-practice. In 1540, the fellowship of surgeons merged with the Barber's company forming the company of the Barbers and Surgeons. Elizabeth I granted the Irish barber-surgeons their second charter in 1577. Spicer-apothecaries broke from the Grocers and were granted their own charter by King James in 1617.
Paracelsus (1493-1541)
Paracelsus introduction of stronger more toxic chemicals to the healing profession marked the beginning of the decline in the use of purely plant materials as medicine. While he worked primarily with plants, he was the first to introduce chemicals such as mercury as cures, which despite its toxic side-effects, was the cure for syphilis until 1947 when penicillin took over.
William Turner (1509-1568)
Turner was physician to many English nobles including the Earl of Emden and the Duke of Somerset. He published his first herbal while working for Somerset in 1551 and an enlarged edition in 1568.
John Gerard (The Herball or General Historie of Plants 1597}
Gerard was a physician of the royal college of barber surgeons who wrote a large herba. It has been pretty much proven at this point that the herbal was basically plagiarized. The illustrations were from a German botanical guide and the herbal information pretty much mirrored that in Rembert Dodoen’s herbal Cruydeboeck published in 1554.
Women and Medicine in pre 16th Century Europe
We know from glosses written in the Brehon Law that both women and men were taught medicine in ancient Ireland. I am not going to say that it was common, but it wasn't unusual as we have been led to believe. Salpe was a female physician mentioned by Pliny the Elder. I mentioned Agnodice above. Aemilia Hilaria was a Roman physician in the 4th Century. Aspasia of Athens was a 5th century physician who taught Aetius the royal physician of Justinian I.
Jumping to the eleventh century, the medical school in Salerno, Italy, allowed women such as Abella of Salerno and Adelperga daughter of Deisderius, to train as physicians and to teach at the school. The Trotula is a compendium of their work with women's health. Both Sarah of St Giles and Stephanie de Montanels practiced medicine in 13th century France. Monica Green, a noted medieval medicine historian, estimates that London in 1560 there were approximately sixty women practitioners.
Nuns shared responsibilities of caring for patients in hospitals associated religious communities, for centuries. Hildegard of Bingen (1098 –1179) is known to have written on the subjects of healing and herbal compounding, but there is controversy as to whether the work Physica which is attributed to her corresponds with the original text. St. Angela Merici (c. 1474) founded the Ursulines order for the education of girls and care of the sick and needy.
There was also the practice of domestic medicine which speaks to the fact that women were expected to practice physick and minor surgery as part of their household responsibilities. In fact according to Harvard medical historians domestic medicine accounted "for almost all healing work in Europe until the late 19th century" and domestic medical manuals of this sort were commonly found in literate households. (Harvard University)
We know this because as more women became literate they began recording the receipts for those medical preparations in journals with other household remedies. Examples of women born during the 16th century whose household journals contain "phisical receipts" include: Lady Grace Mildmay (ca. 1552–1620) Lady Frances Catchmay (ca. 1550- 1629) Lady Anne Maynard (ca. 1580 - 1647) Anne, Lady Maynard trained the physician Hannah Woolley who published books of medical receipts in the mid 17th century.
Early 17th Century Out-of-Period Sources
John Parkinson (1567–1650)
Parkinson was an apothecary for the King of England. He wrote his gardening book Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris in 1629 and clearly it is based on his work in the late 16th century and should be helpful (along with Thomas Hill's 1577 work) for people interested in medieval gardening techniques. His giant herbal the Theatrum Botanicum published in 1640 included over 3000 herbs. It was very similar to Gerard's Herbal and Cruydeboeck. I don't see much point going out of period to use it as there are plenty of period sources.
Nicholas Culpeper (1616- 1654)
After having given it a lot of thought, I have decided to recommend that you not use Culpeper as a source for documentation in the SCA. Culpeper brought a lot of new ideas to the practice of plant medicine. He was the first Englishman to incorporate astrology into medicine. Also his ideas about how the humours were acted upon by astrological phenomena and that one could have a primary and secondary temperament, which were not medical beliefs during the Middle Ages. It might even be said of him that his herbal's were the transition between the scholarly tomes of the Middle Ages and the colonial almanacks.
Harvard University. “Open Collections Program: Contagion, Domestic Medicine.” Accessed May 4, 2016. http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/domesticmedicine.html.
Notable Greek & Roman Scholars
Hippocrates - (c.460 -370 BCE)Hippocrates taught medicine on the Greek island of Cos. Hippocrates based his medical practice on the four humors and the presence of a vital force in the body called pneuma (Breath). This vital force is roughly the equivalent to the concept of prana in Ayurvedic Medicine. Hippocrates also gave the name ignis to the heat of metabolism which is equivalent to the term agni in Ayurvedic medicine. He is responsible for the introduction of the four humours blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm.
The Hippocratic Corpus (name of the collection of writings attributed to Hippocrates) was written by as many as 19 different authors over the course of many hundreds of years, yet the information in them is attributed to Hippocrates. Most of the writings seem to have been written in last decades of the 5th century BC and the first half of the 4th century BC and are probably those of a physicians college- perhaps the Cnidian school although that is conjecture.
i> Aristotle (384- 322 BCE)
Aristotle was the first Greek to propose that hot, cold, damp and dry were the qualities that made up all things. For example, fire is hot and dry. Aristotle catalogued medicinal properties of many herbs and spices by four qualities and established “The Golden Mean" calling for moderation in all things. In 330 BCE Alexander the Great established the Empirical School which followed the teachings of Aristotle. De Plantis is sometimes attributed to Aristotle but was likely written by one of those students, Nicolaus Damascenus around 15 BCE
Theophrastus (ca. 300BCE) De Causis Plantarium and De Historia Plantarium
Referred to as the Father of Botany, he assigned medicinal attributes to many spices, by a system of eight tastes, which was probably influenced by Chinese and Ayurvedic texts. He was the first to propose that herbs had higher contents of aromatic volatile oils when they grew in hot climates. Herbal agents he mentioned included cinnamon, iris rhizome, false hellebore, mint, pomegranate, cardamom, fragrant hellebore, and monkshood. He stressed the importance of humans becoming to tolerant of plant toxins by exposure and a gradual increase in dosage. This method of avoiding poisoning was used successfully by some heads-of-state.
Nicander of Colophon (c. 200 BCE) - Theriaca, Alexipharmaca
Interesting because his family was the hereditary line of priests to Apollo. He wrote extensively on venoms and plant poisons in the pentameter poem Theriaca and his book Alexipharmaca. I have a French version, but have yet to locate an English version.
Agnodice of Athens (c.325 BCE)
Female physician put on trial for pretending to be a man to practice medicine. Her wealthy female patrons banded together and had the law repealed.
Virgil (70-19 BCE)
Wrote a compendium on Greek and Roman agricultural practice and country life called the Georgics.
A Cornelius Celsus - (ca 25 BCE - 50 CE ) De Medicina
Not much is known about him other than the fact that he was a contemporary of Pliny the Elder and Columula who frequently cites his knowledge of agriculture in De Re Rustic. It was unlikely that he was a physician, but Roman nobles were typically well schooled in medicine as it was useful to them in the management of their estates.
Scribonius Largus (ca, 1-50 CE) Compositiones Medicamentorum
He is probably most significant to English medicine because he was the physician who accompanied Claudius when he invaded Britain
Pliny - (23-79 CE) - Naturalis Historia
Pliny was one of those typical early polymaths who hung around with the emperor Vespasian. He was a commander in the army/navy and spent a lot of his free time investigating the flora and fauna of areas he traveled during his service, as well as their uses. He compiled it all in what was one of the first encyclopedic set of volumes.
Dioscorides - (c. 40 - 90 CE) - De Materia Medica 50-68 CE
Dioscorides' De Materia Medica was probably the most influential herbal manuscript ever written. It contained information on over 600 plants used for medicinal purposes and those uses he described were copied and passed down many medical documents written up until the 17th century.
Galen - (129-215 CE) - On the Natural Faculties, Art of Physick De temperamentis
This Greek physician studied at the Alexandrian medical school and became one of the most prominent physicians. Galen was known to have employed up to 20 scribes to write his works and over 600 treatises are attributed to this group known as the Galenic Corpus. He is probably most famous in the SCA for his Art of Physick as translated by Culpeper, but his work De Temperamentis which introduced the four temperaments was equally influential. He named the "sanguine", "choleric", "melancholic" and "phlegmatic" after the bodily humors, respectively and developed the physical description of these typologies.
Marcellus Empiricus (ca. 401CE) De Medicamentis Empiricis, Physicis, et Rationabilibus
I think the most significant thing about Empiricus is that he stole the work of Scribonius Largus and put it in this book without attribution, but he is definitely the more eloquent writer.
Islamic Golden Age 762 CE to 1258
During the Dark Ages, medical schools started appearing in the 9th century in Eastern locales such as Persia and the Arab empire. Their practices merged Greek medicine and Middle Eastern cultural customs into a system called Unani tibb. They were alchemists who invented a number of medical tools including the alembic which was used to distill aqua vitae (hard liquor) for medicinal purposes.Abu Mūsā Jābir ibn Hayyān Jabirian (c. 721 – c. 815 CE) Book of Poisons
This physician's corpus is credited writing or translating thousands of medicinal texts dating to the 8th and 9th Century. Credited with inventing distillation equipment known as the Alembic and other lab equipment such as the retort.
Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (ca.800 - ca 870)
Al-Kindi was a philosopher from Baghdad who was charged by the Caliph al-Mamun to translate and comment on Greek documents in his possession. Al-Kindi is generally credited with creating the first rose hydrosol through distillation.
Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi (d. 990 CE) Kitāb Kāmil aṣ-Ṣināʿa aṭ-Ṭibbiyya
Masoudi wrote his text covering both medicine and psychology, but also delved into the subject of medical ethics, and how some diseases have a psychosomatic component. "Joy and contentment can bring a better living status to many who would otherwise be sick and miserable due to unnecessary sadness, fear, worry and anxiety."
Abu-Khasim Abulcasis (936-1030)
An alchemist/physician from Cordoba who wrote a surgical text know as the Tasrif. He is thought to have improved the design of the alembic and distillation process to the point of distilling wine and rosewater into "aqua vitae" to be drank for the medicinal purpose of extending longevity.
Abū Alī al-Ḥusayn ibnʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā (980-1037) Book of Healing, Cannon of Medicine
The Persian physician, Avicenna, wrote his herbal treatise, The Cannon of Medicine, around 1025 AD. It is likely his teachings being passed along in the Al-Andalus cookbook. He was noted for expanding on Galen's temperaments to include the mental. emotional and spiritual aspects of the typologies that we speak of today.
805 CE 1st hospital for general population Baghdad by Harun Al-Rashid.
Early Middle Ages & The Viking Ages (500 CE - 1000 CE)
Monastic communities were the primary source of Western European herbal knowledge during this period. Montecassino near Rome was noted for having translated a vast collection of Arabic medical texts that were translations of older Greek texts as well as their own treatises. Monks and scribes also preserved the Greco-Roman manuscripts by copying them, first in Latin and later in their native languages.
These monasteries were famous for their cloister gardens in which they grew most of the herbs they used in to provide medical care to their communities. Hospitals of this era often started as these herbal dispensaries. Walafrid Strabo (808-849 CE) wrote a Latin verse Hortulus that described such a garden. Monks and nuns were prohibited from spilling blood by Papal decree. They often sourced out that sort of work to tradesmen who eventually became recognized as barber-surgeons.
ca. 438 BCE St. Patrick is credited with codifying Brehon law, pre-Celtic Irish tribal law, in the Senchus Mor: These codes governed the establishment of hospitals and set fees for Irish physicians naming male physicians liaig and female physicians, banliaig. Medical treatment and nourishing food was made available for everyone who needed it, free hospitals for the sick poor. Every physician was required by law to maintain and train four medical students and unqualified physicians were prohibited from practicing.
580 CE Xenodochium at Mérida, was a xenodochium used as a hostel for pilgrims and a dispensary/clinic for local citizens.
Paulus Aegineta - (625-690 CE) - Medical Compendium in Seven Volumes
Aegineta was a practicing physician and a Byzantine Greek who documented the practice of medicine in encyclopedic form. The sixth book on surgery was still being referenced by chirurgeon in the early Renaissance.
650 CE Hôtel-Dieu de Paris was established by the church and wealthy Parisiennes to provide shelter and medical aid to the poor.
ca. 800 CE Charlemagne Capitularies
Charlemagne ordered medicinal plants to be grown on state-owned lands. 100 different plants were mentioned including sage, sea onion, iris, mint, common centaury, poppy and marsh mallow. He also decreed that a dispensary/hospital should be attached to each cathedral and monastery.
ca. 820 CE Monastic dispensary established that eventually became the School of Salerno. Founded by the Archdeacon Adelmus under the order of Charles the Great.
The High Middle Ages. 1000-1300 C.E.
This period was noted for several Anglo Saxon medical manuscripts as gathered by monastic scribes or those working for rulers.
Bald's Leechbooks
Compiled under King Alfred's reign and recorded by the scribe Cild. The third Leechbook is considered by most to most closely resemble a native English practice.
Herbarium of Pseudo Apuleii ( Old English Herbarium)
Translation of an earlier Greek work that was in circulation in England as early as the 9th century.
Lacnunga 1000 CE (London, BL Harley 585)
The title of this manuscript was given to it by its 19th century translator Cockayne. The unique structure of this manuscript leads scholars to believe that it may be a very early example of what was called a commonplace book, which were basically compendiums of information arranged as it was gathered popular in later years. I tend to think literate healers kept track of their methods and formulas, regardless of the era.
The manuscripts were an interesting mix of what must have been native beliefs such as stories of flying venoms and elf shot as naturalistic (supernatural) causes of illness. They developed a system of ritual methods of delivering medical preparations including the recitation of "charms." These charms were also was also seen in Gaelic medical practice and there seems to have been some cross-over as evidenced by Old Irish words used in the Anglo Saxon charms.
Schola Medica Salernitana
This medical school was the first and undoubtedly the most influential institution in medical history. It began as one of the monasterial dispensaries noted above at some point in the 9th century, and carried on throughout the Middle Ages . The Trotula is a compendium of the practice of women's care used by the physicians at that school in the 12th Century.
The picture illustrates the story of how Robert Duke of Normandy was saved by his wife who was
The Salernitan Medical School as it appears in a miniature of the Canon of Avicenna.
It illustrates a story of how Robert Duke of Normandy's wife was able to save his life
by following advice from school doctors.
Hospitals dedicated primarily to caring for the ill and injured were often associated with medical schools and really began to spring up during this period but many were still also bedehouses or almshouses where poor people with no means went for care.
1107 -St. Thomas Hospital - England
1255 -The Collège de St. Cosmé -Paris.
The Late Middle Age 1300- 1500
This period began with the Great Famine and the Bubonic Plague. During the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the professional medical sector consisted of three types of practitioner.
Physicians- Generally from the upper classes and trained at medical schoools on Greek medical theory. These were general practitioners who examined, diagnosed and prescribed but regardless of what you saw in Merlin, they weren't getting their hands dirty with the actual preparation of medicines or caring for the ill. That was generally left to the women or servants.
Chirurgeon/Surgeons- This separate branch of medicinal practice evolved during the time when the monastery hospitals were providing healthcare. Surgeons would do the dirty work that the monks/nuns were unable to perform due to religious restrictions on shedding blood. The first medical corporation in the British Isles was established in Ireland in 1446 when Henry VI established the Guild of St. Mary Magdalane for the barber-surgeons of Dublin. The continued to serve this role for the elitist physicians who came from noble families and didn't want to get dirty.
Apothecary- Members of the Pepperers' Guild and Spicers' Guilds were incorporated as the Worshipful Company of Grocers in 1428. Some of these tradesmen began to specialize in compounding of medicinal preparations and became known as spicer-apothecaries. They were trained through apprenticeship and compounded medicines using both herbs and alchemical preparations. They extended their practice to dispensing medical advice and midwifery. Quite a few were women. In 1421, a group of physicians unsuccessfully petitioned the English Parliament to decree “that no Woman use the pratyse of Fisyk under the same payne” of “long imprisonment” and a fine of forty pounds.” It would be another century or so before that would be successful.
During this period you see more documentation of the physician-family dynasties and translation of texts by monastic scribes. The Red Book of Hergest written just after 1382 contains medical knowledge attributed to a family referred to as the Physicians of Myddvai.
The Book of the O'Lees written in 1443, partly in Latin and partly in Irish detailed that family’s method of treating the common diseases of the time. Towards the end of this period Greek theories began to fall out of favor because they failed miserably at controlling the Plague and didn't touch the syphilis epidemic that arose at the same time.
Arnaldus de Villa Nova (c.1240 - 1311)
Catalan physician who studied at the University of Montpellier. He is credited with being the first to use distilled alcohol to extract constituents from a plant (tinctures), however some alchemical works credited to him were not published until the 1500's are considered to be falsely attributed. Proceed with caution when citing him.
The Early Renaissance 1500-1650
This is a period when herbals began to be published in earnest. Beginning with Banckes herbal in 1525 and The Grete Herbal published in 1529, medical professionals began to write larger and larger tomes on plants and their medical uses.
Professional organizations were established by government authorities which defined their scope-of-practice. In 1540, the fellowship of surgeons merged with the Barber's company forming the company of the Barbers and Surgeons. Elizabeth I granted the Irish barber-surgeons their second charter in 1577. Spicer-apothecaries broke from the Grocers and were granted their own charter by King James in 1617.
Paracelsus (1493-1541)
Paracelsus introduction of stronger more toxic chemicals to the healing profession marked the beginning of the decline in the use of purely plant materials as medicine. While he worked primarily with plants, he was the first to introduce chemicals such as mercury as cures, which despite its toxic side-effects, was the cure for syphilis until 1947 when penicillin took over.
William Turner (1509-1568)
Turner was physician to many English nobles including the Earl of Emden and the Duke of Somerset. He published his first herbal while working for Somerset in 1551 and an enlarged edition in 1568.
John Gerard (The Herball or General Historie of Plants 1597}
Gerard was a physician of the royal college of barber surgeons who wrote a large herba. It has been pretty much proven at this point that the herbal was basically plagiarized. The illustrations were from a German botanical guide and the herbal information pretty much mirrored that in Rembert Dodoen’s herbal Cruydeboeck published in 1554.
Women and Medicine in pre 16th Century Europe
We know from glosses written in the Brehon Law that both women and men were taught medicine in ancient Ireland. I am not going to say that it was common, but it wasn't unusual as we have been led to believe. Salpe was a female physician mentioned by Pliny the Elder. I mentioned Agnodice above. Aemilia Hilaria was a Roman physician in the 4th Century. Aspasia of Athens was a 5th century physician who taught Aetius the royal physician of Justinian I.
Jumping to the eleventh century, the medical school in Salerno, Italy, allowed women such as Abella of Salerno and Adelperga daughter of Deisderius, to train as physicians and to teach at the school. The Trotula is a compendium of their work with women's health. Both Sarah of St Giles and Stephanie de Montanels practiced medicine in 13th century France. Monica Green, a noted medieval medicine historian, estimates that London in 1560 there were approximately sixty women practitioners.
Nuns shared responsibilities of caring for patients in hospitals associated religious communities, for centuries. Hildegard of Bingen (1098 –1179) is known to have written on the subjects of healing and herbal compounding, but there is controversy as to whether the work Physica which is attributed to her corresponds with the original text. St. Angela Merici (c. 1474) founded the Ursulines order for the education of girls and care of the sick and needy.
There was also the practice of domestic medicine which speaks to the fact that women were expected to practice physick and minor surgery as part of their household responsibilities. In fact according to Harvard medical historians domestic medicine accounted "for almost all healing work in Europe until the late 19th century" and domestic medical manuals of this sort were commonly found in literate households. (Harvard University)
We know this because as more women became literate they began recording the receipts for those medical preparations in journals with other household remedies. Examples of women born during the 16th century whose household journals contain "phisical receipts" include: Lady Grace Mildmay (ca. 1552–1620) Lady Frances Catchmay (ca. 1550- 1629) Lady Anne Maynard (ca. 1580 - 1647) Anne, Lady Maynard trained the physician Hannah Woolley who published books of medical receipts in the mid 17th century.
Early 17th Century Out-of-Period Sources
John Parkinson (1567–1650)
Parkinson was an apothecary for the King of England. He wrote his gardening book Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris in 1629 and clearly it is based on his work in the late 16th century and should be helpful (along with Thomas Hill's 1577 work) for people interested in medieval gardening techniques. His giant herbal the Theatrum Botanicum published in 1640 included over 3000 herbs. It was very similar to Gerard's Herbal and Cruydeboeck. I don't see much point going out of period to use it as there are plenty of period sources.
Nicholas Culpeper (1616- 1654)
After having given it a lot of thought, I have decided to recommend that you not use Culpeper as a source for documentation in the SCA. Culpeper brought a lot of new ideas to the practice of plant medicine. He was the first Englishman to incorporate astrology into medicine. Also his ideas about how the humours were acted upon by astrological phenomena and that one could have a primary and secondary temperament, which were not medical beliefs during the Middle Ages. It might even be said of him that his herbal's were the transition between the scholarly tomes of the Middle Ages and the colonial almanacks.
Harvard University. “Open Collections Program: Contagion, Domestic Medicine.” Accessed May 4, 2016. http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/domesticmedicine.html.
Very informative!
ReplyDeleteIt's not cheating; it's resourceful. ^_^