The Middle Ages have always been considered, not without reason, as a dark period in history in many ways. However, a new international research has revealed that medieval medicine was much more sophisticated than previously thought and, in fact, some of its remedies are trending on TikTok today.
This international research project, involving professors from Binghamton University and the State University of New York, both in the United States, shows that in the Middle Ages, people were not confined to castles, steeped in superstition, but instead developed health practices based on the best knowledge of the time, some of which reflect modern wellness trends.
«People engaged with medicine on a much larger scale than previously believed –says Meg Leja, associate professor of history at Binghamton University, specializing in the political and cultural history of late antiquity and the Middle Ages in Europe–. They were concerned about cures, they wanted to observe the natural world and record information wherever they could in this period known as the ‘Dark Ages’.»
The Corpus of Latin Medicine of the Early Middle Ages (CEMLM), funded by the British Academy, has compiled hundreds of medieval manuscripts with medical material predating the 11th century. Countless manuscripts that had been left out of previous catalogs were included, practically doubling the number of known medical manuscripts from the Dark Ages.
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Then there’s lizard shampoo, where lizard pieces are taken to help make hair more abundant and fluid, or even to remove it, a modern parallel to waxing.
«Many of the things seen in these manuscripts are currently being promoted online as alternative medicine, but they have existed for thousands of years,» Leja points out.
Leja spent the last two years with the rest of the team preparing the new catalog (which has just been published online), reviewing manuscripts from all over Europe and editing and formatting them. Previously, she had written about medieval medicine in her first book, ‘Embodying the Soul: Medicine and Religion in Carolingian Europe.’
Many of the writings were found in the margins of books completely unrelated to medicine: manuscripts on grammar, theology, poetry, etc. Leja emphasizes that this speaks to a concern for the health of the body and finding ways to control it.
It is true that we lack many sources for this period, and in that sense, it is a dark period, but not in terms of anti-scientific attitudes: people in the Early Middle Ages were very interested in science, observation, in understanding the usefulness of different natural substances and in trying to identify patterns and make predictions, Leja assures.
The research team will continue to update the catalog with new manuscripts and is working on new editions and translations of medical texts that could be used in teaching.
Leja notes that, while previous catalogs focused on texts from recognized authorities like Hippocrates, this is not necessarily material that people in the Middle Ages would have prioritized, and a more comprehensive catalog will allow historians to showcase medicine in its entirety.