Description
Book Synopsis'Fills a big gap. It is concerned with recipe collections, perhaps the least studied of all medical documents, and includes - chants, charms and prayers, as well as herbal remedies for a variety of ailments.' '
Popular Medicinesucceeds in two ways: the quality of its philological scholarship confirms the growing academic respectability of an interest in medical history, and the abundance of primary material made available for the first time in print offers a way of reconciling opposing views on medieval English medicine. It forces medical historians to think hard about the diagnostic categories they use, and sanctions a pluralist approach to an equally diverse systemof medicine.'
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT The first study of Anglo-Norman medical prescriptions to appear in print. Six major collections, comprising over 1000 receipts, are analysed and edited. A historical introduction provides the richest and most up-to-date account of popular medicine in the period 1100-1300 yet published. Full botanical glossaries are provided.
TONY HUNTis a Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford.
Trade ReviewHunt proceeds to give us extracts and complete texts of over 1000 receipts surrounded by sound and detailed philological commentary and it would be hard to imagine a more scholarly treatment...Most...[of the lesser texts] are a delight for cultural historians.' NOTES AND QUERIES 'To those interested in medieval medicine, in the varied experiences of men and women in sickness and health, in sexuality, religion, diet and even household management, these practical writings offer a mine of information... The knowledge collected in these excellently presented and helpfully annotated texts takes us to the very heart of medieval culture.' ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW [Miri Rubin] 'The meat of what is a substantial book is the printing of six collections of recipes written mostly, but not entirely, in Anglo-Norman... makes accessible a category of medical writing which has been lost to sight. * SOCIAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE *
