Medieval Medicine: The Art of Healing, from Head to Toe

(Hardback)

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This unique examination of medieval medicine as detailed in physician's manuals of the period reveals a more sophisticated approach to the medical arts than expected for the time. Far from the primitive and barbaric practices the Middle Ages may conjure up in our minds, doctors during that time combined knowledge, tradition, innovation, and intuition to create a humane, holistic approach to understanding and treating every known disease. In fact, a singularly authoritative medical source of the period, Lily of Medicine, continued to provide crucial study for students and practitioners of medicine almost four centuries after its completion in 1305. This unprecedented book investigates the extensive capabilities of physicians who relied on practice, observation, and imagination before the supremacy of mechanistic views and technological aids. Medieval Medicine: The Art of Healing, from Head to Toe is a comprehensive look at diseases as they were described, classified, explained, assessed, and treated by doctors of the age. The author methodically compares a dozen encyclopedic manuals in which both the fundamental understanding of healthy functions and the specific response to diseases were summarized, viewing the information through a medieval perspective rather than based upon modern criteria.

Reviews

This extraordinary book will remind readers of the importance of knowledge gained many centuries ago. . . . This exhaustively researched book, written in elegant prose and express vocabulary, will capture and then hold one's attention. Valuable to historians, biologists, physicians, and historically oriented scientists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. * Choice *
Medieval Medicine is essential reading for anyone looking for a synthetic overview of academic medicine in the later medieval period. . . . Anyone wishing to understand later medieval medicine simply must consult Demaitre's indispensable overview. * Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences *

Author Bio

Luke Demaitre, PhD, is visiting professor of history in the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.