Okay, so classical texts. I said that the three main influences on Anglo-Saxon medicine are the Judeo-Christian tradition, classical texts and Northern European herb law. So, moving on to the second of these, the classical texts.
Obviously these were largely promulgated through the monasteries. But there is some evidence of lay physicians as well who weren't monks, who were trained in Galenic precepts, such as the doctrine of humours, which we talked about, and we'll talk about more at the teaching weekend at this time. So there's a classical idea that's influential here, that all substances have some medicinal value.
if only the correct ritual and preparation can be found to exploit them. Now this was particularly influential, especially as it held that the more uncommon a substance, the greater its power. We're still a little bit prone to this belief now, hence the excitement about how the possible cure for cancer might be found in the middle of a rainforest.
It's never suggested that it might be dandelion or something that grows in our own gardens, is it? It's always something uncommon. The one particularly significant consequence of this in the Middle Ages was the history of crystal therapy, in that rare gems in particular were rare, even more than they are now. Some were more common than others.
So, you know, quartz you could find, or certain types of quartz, but probably not all types. But there weren't many diamonds to the pound in medieval Britain. And similarly, the rare plants, And animal substances, the more exotic the animal that the substance came from, the more likely it was to have powerful effects.
So we see the development of some quite complex procedures. In the same way, the rituals accompanying the preparation of medicinal substances became more and more complex and sophisticated. because the more difficult the ritual, the more powerful the resulting substance as well. So although this does come from classical ideas, you can see that these classical ideas became elaborated.
at this time. That would have also been fed into by Northern European herb lore. Now, the problem we have with this is it's not a written tradition.
So the evidence that we have is rather patchy. What we do have... have is suggestive of a threefold approach, which you see more generally in their approach to structuring the world. So you see this similar threefold approach to how the society is structured, which I'm not going to go into here because it's a bit more complicated. But in the case of medicine, we see it in a threefold approach in terms of what you did with a patient.
So firstly, spell medicine, which is largely ritual-based, and there's some evidence of shamanic practices in northern Europe. Shamanic practices continue to be quite significant in far northern Europe. So Siberia still has...
as a strong tradition of shamanic medicine, we nowadays, we tend to associate it more with Southern American. rituals, South America rather than the continent, but it was certainly something you'd have in Northern Europe too. Later this obviously became overtaken by Judeo-Christian ritual and incorporated into Judeo-Christian ideas.
Then there's knife medicine, surgery, and including bloodletting. So you can see there that the classical ideas in which bloodletting would have been significant become incorporated into these Northern European ideas. And then you have herb medicine, which is probably largely based on Germanic folk practices rather than on classical texts. But we don't have much evidence, really. about what was used for what from this direction.
There's some, there's a few texts. So there's the Leech Books of Bald, the Lachnunga and the Old English Herbarium, which you'll find copies of Stephen Pollington's book. Oof, hang on.
Sorry, I'm just looking for it. I know it's on the bookshelf somewhere. Oh, anyway, it's in the, I think it's probably in the reference list for this lecture. Stephen Pollington's book has translations of all three of those, if you are interested, and there's certainly copies in the University Library and I think also in the College Library. You'll see if you look them up that Lachnunga and the other texts combine formal Christian prayers and invocations with classical knowledge and with what must be some native English lore as well or native Anglo-Saxon lore.
Some texts were translated into English, even in the 10th and 11th centuries. The Old English Herbarium is a compendium of translated Latin texts. You should be aware though that there were a few non-monastic readers at the time, so it wasn't really particularly helpful because if you could read, you could probably read Latin.
As we move on in the Middle Ages, Salerno becomes the... hub of medicine in Europe. Salerno in Italy had a famous medical school established in the 10th century and this became the European leader of medical ideas, medical concepts.
And their advances and their teachings became disseminated around other monastic houses of Europe. So if you were a monk in, say, Paris, you might be sent to Salerno if you had a particular interest in medicine or if your abbot thought you should in order to train there and then you would bring back your training and knowledge to help your own community. Their teachings were clearly based on Hippocrates and on Greco-Roman traditions. We do have some texts still from them and their most noted Professor Trotula. is famous for writing works particularly on female physiology, anatomy and sexuality.
you can get hold of the works of Trotula in translation. Oh, maybe not in translation. Actually, you might have to be able to read Italian of the 10th century. Trotula has always traditionally been thought to be female, but especially because of the focus on female physiology, anatomy and sexuality, this is disputed.
We don't really know for certain. And certainly in the early 20th century it was strongly argued that no woman could possibly have written these texts because she was far too forthright. Nowadays, opinion is divided.
Nowadays, you will find some people strongly arguing that she was a woman and other people equally strongly arguing that she clearly wasn't. Hildegard of Bingen, however, was definitely a woman. Hildegard is a saint of the 12th century. Hildegard...
Was he who I was talking to about Hildegard? No, it wasn't, was it? Hildegard was a saint, a mystic, a healer and a visionary. She is just as famous for her music.
as she is for her medical writings and also famous in the church for her spiritual writings so she's very well known in three different spheres and interestingly often people from one sphere have no idea that she's famous in one of the others so you'll find people who are great fans today of her musical compositions you'll find interpretations of them on the internet But often these people have no idea that she's a famous herbalist as well. She started having visions at the age of three. As an eight-year-old, she was enclosed in the order of anchoresses.
To be an anchoress meant that you were closed away from the world forever, which was a pretty surefire way of getting... eternal life. God appreciated people making such sacrifices. In the case of Hildegard, however, she came out from her anchorage, did they call it anchorages?
I should know this, and eventually became abbess of her own order, which is, her own order is brilliant. They had their own rich style of dress. They all wore these amazing ornate outfits with tiaras to celebrate celestial divinity.
They had this whole mystical daily routine. They have their own language of which we still know 900 words. And yeah, she was altogether quite an extraordinary individual.
She first began writing in order to record her vision. So her early books are mainly spiritual books. But then she goes on to produce later medical books.
which were much more pragmatic. They're not claimed to be spiritual in origin, they're claimed to be based on Hippocratic theory and with a particular focus on gynaecology and fertility in particular. Treatments included use of herbs, animal remedies and gemstones. Some notable treatments there, psyllium husks for constipation which, well, I certainly prescribed on Monday, so very commonly used nowadays.
Galangal for indigestion, ditto, I last prescribed that about a week and a half ago. Chestnuts for brain and nerves. Nowadays we could probably justify the use of chestnuts for brain and nerves based on their content of essential fatty acids.
But here, obviously, you're looking at doctrine of signatures. If you think of the shape of a chestnut, it very clearly echoes the brain. Finally, the last school I'm going to mention is the physicians of Muthfai.
Muthfai in Wales had a Hippocratic school established in the 12th century, which is notable. for having quite, it was a very common sense approach, Muthvi, very sensible, very down to earth. They recommended moderation in all habits, in eating, exercise, labour and meditation and so you can really see that Hippocratic influence in Muthvi, that it's the same kind of idea that everything is done in moderation. Holistic.
So they're looking for the causes of illness in a very Hippocratic style. And another interesting thing about Muthvah is that it's empirical and uses mainly simples. So single herbs on their own, which is very unusual for a professional school.
Because usually professional schools want to do something that clearly marks them out from folk medical practitioners who mainly use simples. And so they would usually produce much more complex. prescriptions.
Mudhvi didn't bother with any of that. Mudhvi were much more down to earth. The physicians of Mudhvi, actually, you can track them right through to the 18th century, probably even the 19th century, that physicians from the same family maintained the tradition of practicing medicine right into modern ages and as noted physicians.
They used approximately 175 different herbs. It's recorded from the 13th century book that the physicians of Midfair wrote. So cleavers for scrofula, which we would still pretty much use now.
Cleavers is seen as a lymphatic herb. Hyssop for a tight chest, again, very similar thing to what we do now. And using vervain, betony, chamomile and fennel for a headache. Absolutely makes sense to me. That's a prescription that I could see myself writing.
Those four herbs together. Betony in particular is very much used for headaches. Vervain, camomile and fennel. It absolutely makes perfect sense. Right, at the end of this PowerPoint you'll find some references with some suggestions of what to find.
You'll note here the Pollington book that I was talking about. And Graham Tobin's book, Cool Peppers Medicine, I know is about to be reprinted, so if you can't get hold of it, the old copy, you will be able to get hold of new ones shortly. Okay, I think I'm done.