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Medieval Medicine: A Study of its Evolution
A survey of how medical ideas and care changed across the Middle Ages, from monastery leechbooks to university-trained physicians, hospitals and plague regulations.
Faith and Health
Medicine and Healing
Doctors, herbs, theories and beliefs about illness and magic.
Leprosy and Leper Houses
How medieval communities understood leprosy, how people with the disease were examined and housed, and what daily life in a leper house was typically like.
Medieval Hospitals and Almshouses
What medieval hospitals and almshouses were for, who founded and ran them, and how they sheltered the sick, the poor, pilgrims and the elderly.
Medieval Magic and Witchcraft: A Study of its Evolution
Folk charms, learned magic and changing church attitudes to witchcraft in the Middle Ages, with a note on why the famous witch hunts mostly came later.
Medieval Medicine: A Study of its Practices
Who treated the sick in the Middle Ages: physicians, surgeons, barber-surgeons, apothecaries, midwives and household healers, and what each typically did.
Medieval Medicine: A Study of the Art of Healing
Medieval care in practice: nursing in religious houses and hospitals, bloodletting and purging, and the diet and lifestyle advice that formed the core of treatment.
Medieval Medicine: Healing Practices and Theories
How the theory of the four humors shaped medieval diagnosis and treatment, from blood and phlegm to temperaments, pulse reading and urine examination.
Medieval Medicine: The Art of Healing
How faith shaped medieval healing: prayer, saints, relics, pilgrimage and charms used alongside ordinary remedies, and how the church viewed them.
Medieval Medicine: The Use of Herbs
Common medicinal plants of the Middle Ages, such as sage, rue, fennel and comfrey, and how they were grown in monastery and household gardens.
Medieval Medicine: The Use of Herbs and Remedies
How medieval healers prepared and applied remedies such as salves, syrups, poultices and drinks, using herbals, leechbooks and recipe collections.
The Medieval System of Medicine: Healing Practices and Theories
The theories that organized medieval medicine as a system: balance, complexion, natural spirits, the elements, astrology and the authority of ancient texts.
Related topics
More in faith and health
Monasteries and Orders Monks, monasteries and the military religious orders. Philosophy and Theology How medieval thinkers joined faith and reason. The Black Death The plague of the 1300s and its effects on society. Inquisition and Heresy How medieval church courts pursued heresy, and what the records really show. Saints and Mystics Holy men and women, visionaries and a martyr. Theologians and Reformers Thinkers who shaped and challenged Church teaching. The Church and Its Power How the medieval church was organized and how it used its influence. Afterlife and Purgatory What people believed about death, heaven, hell and purgatory. Sin, Salvation and Virtue Medieval ideas about sin, salvation, providence and the virtues. Jews in Medieval Europe Jewish communities, scholarship, restrictions and expulsions. Pilgrimage, Relics and Shrines Holy journeys, saints bones and the shrines that drew travelers.