The practice of medicine in England about the year 1000

Social History of Medicine

Volumn 13, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 221-237

  Meaney, Audrey ^a  

^a NONE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Anglo Saxons; Herbarium complex; Lacnunga; Leechbook of Bald; Medical practitioners; Medical texts; Monastic infirmaries

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HISTORY; MEDICINE; UNITED KINGDOM;

ENGLAND; HISTORY, MEDIEVAL; MEDICINE;

EID: 0642277359     PISSN: 0951631X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/shm/13.2.221     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. R. L. Venezky and A. DiPaolo Healey, A Microfiche Concordance to Old English (Newark, NJ, 1980-3).
2. See M. Lapidge, 'The School of Theodore and Hadrian', Anglo-Saxon England, 15 (1986), 45-72, esp. p. 50.
3. R. Ehwald (ed.), Aldhelmi Opera, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi 15 (Berlin, 1919), pp. 71, 277; M. Lapidge and M. Herren (trans.), Aldhelm: The Prose Works (Cambridge, 1979), pp. 8, 42, 96, 190n.27.
4. R. Ehwald (ed.), Aldhelmi Opera, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi 15 (Berlin, 1919), pp. 71, 277; M. Lapidge and M. Herren (trans.), Aldhelm: The Prose Works (Cambridge, 1979), pp. 8, 42, 96, 190n.27.
5. De Virginitate, VII, Ehwald, Aldhelmi Opera, p. 235; Lapidge and Herren, Aldhelm, p. 64 (metaphor of Christ as true physician); see also his description of some materiae medicae in his Enigmata. M. L. Cameron, Anglo-Saxon Medicine (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 25-6.
6. De Virginitate, VII, Ehwald, Aldhelmi Opera, p. 235; Lapidge and Herren, Aldhelm, p. 64 (metaphor of Christ as true physician); see also his description of some materiae medicae in his Enigmata. M. L. Cameron, Anglo-Saxon Medicine (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 25-6.
7. De Virginitate, VII, Ehwald, Aldhelmi Opera, p. 235; Lapidge and Herren, Aldhelm, p. 64 (metaphor of Christ as true physician); see also his description of some materiae medicae in his Enigmata. M. L. Cameron, Anglo-Saxon Medicine (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 25-6.
8. Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People [HE], ed. and trans. B. Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969), V.3, 6, 2, respectively.
9. E. J. Kealey, Medieval Medicus: A Social History of Anglo-Norman Medicine (Baltimore and London, 1981), pp. 31-3.
10. HE, IV. 19.
11. HE, IV.32;
12. B. Colgrave (ed. and trans.), Two Lives of St Cuthbert (Cambridge, 1940),
13. Anonymous Life, IV.17,
14. Bede's Life, ch. 45, pp. 136-9, 298-301.
15. HE, IV.26. Riddle no. 5, in G. P. Krapp and E. van K. Dobbie (eds.), The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, vol. III, The Exeter Book (New York, 1936), pp. 183-4. I owe this reference to Isla Fay, an enterprising student of Peter Biller.
16. Bald's Leechbook [BL] is edited as vol. II of T. O. Cockayne, Lecchdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, Rolls Series 35, 3 vols. (London, 1864-66), republished with a new introduction by C. Singer (1961); and by C. E. Wright, Bald's Leechbook, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile V (Copenhagen, 1955). See also A. L. Meaney, 'King Alfred and his Secretariat', Parergon, 11 (1975), pp. 17-18; A. L. Meaney, 'Alfred, the Patriarch and the White Stone', AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, 49 (1978), 65-79; S. Keynes and M. Lapidge (eds. and trans.), Alfred the Great (Harmondsworth, 1983), pp. 33-4, 215-16n.40, 270n.220.
17. Bald's Leechbook [BL] is edited as vol. II of T. O. Cockayne, Lecchdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, Rolls Series 35, 3 vols. (London, 1864-66), republished with a new introduction by C. Singer (1961); and by C. E. Wright, Bald's Leechbook, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile V (Copenhagen, 1955). See also A. L. Meaney, 'King Alfred and his Secretariat', Parergon, 11 (1975), pp. 17-18; A. L. Meaney, 'Alfred, the Patriarch and the White Stone', AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, 49 (1978), 65-79; S. Keynes and M. Lapidge (eds. and trans.), Alfred the Great (Harmondsworth, 1983), pp. 33-4, 215-16n.40, 270n.220.
18. Bald's Leechbook [BL] is edited as vol. II of T. O. Cockayne, Lecchdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, Rolls Series 35, 3 vols. (London, 1864-66), republished with a new introduction by C. Singer (1961); and by C. E. Wright, Bald's Leechbook, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile V (Copenhagen, 1955). See also A. L. Meaney, 'King Alfred and his Secretariat', Parergon, 11 (1975), pp. 17-18; A. L. Meaney, 'Alfred, the Patriarch and the White Stone', AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, 49 (1978), 65-79; S. Keynes and M. Lapidge (eds. and trans.), Alfred the Great (Harmondsworth, 1983), pp. 33-4, 215-16n.40, 270n.220.
19. Bald's Leechbook [BL] is edited as vol. II of T. O. Cockayne, Lecchdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, Rolls Series 35, 3 vols. (London, 1864-66), republished with a new introduction by C. Singer (1961); and by C. E. Wright, Bald's Leechbook, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile V (Copenhagen, 1955). See also A. L. Meaney, 'King Alfred and his Secretariat', Parergon, 11 (1975), pp. 17-18; A. L. Meaney, 'Alfred, the Patriarch and the White Stone', AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, 49 (1978), 65-79; S. Keynes and M. Lapidge (eds. and trans.), Alfred the Great (Harmondsworth, 1983), pp. 33-4, 215-16n.40, 270n.220.
20. Bald's Leechbook [BL] is edited as vol. II of T. O. Cockayne, Lecchdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, Rolls Series 35, 3 vols. (London, 1864-66), republished with a new introduction by C. Singer (1961); and by C. E. Wright, Bald's Leechbook, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile V (Copenhagen, 1955). See also A. L. Meaney, 'King Alfred and his Secretariat', Parergon, 11 (1975), pp. 17-18; A. L. Meaney, 'Alfred, the Patriarch and the White Stone', AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, 49 (1978), 65-79; S. Keynes and M. Lapidge (eds. and trans.), Alfred the Great (Harmondsworth, 1983), pp. 33-4, 215-16n.40, 270n.220.
21. BL, II.lxv.2; I.xlvii. Cameron, Anglo-Saxon Medicine, pp. 21-2, 74-99, esp. p. 96. Could peor have included something like measles?
22. Asser, Life of King Alfred, ed. W. H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1904), chs. 25 (p. 21), 74 (p. 54); trans. in Keynes and Lapidge, Alfred, pp. 76, 88-9.
23. Asser, Life of King Alfred, ed. W. H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1904), chs. 25 (p. 21), 74 (p. 54); trans. in Keynes and Lapidge, Alfred, pp. 76, 88-9.
24. F. Rommel (ed.). Liber Regulœ Pastoratis, 2 vols., Sources chrétiennes 381-2 (Paris, 1992); H. Sweet (ed.), King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care, Early English Text Society Original Series [EETS, OS] 45 (Oxford, 1871).
25. F. Rommel (ed.). Liber Regulœ Pastoratis, 2 vols., Sources chrétiennes 381-2 (Paris, 1992); H. Sweet (ed.), King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care, Early English Text Society Original Series [EETS, OS] 45 (Oxford, 1871).
26. Latin I.ix, col. 22D, III.ii, col. 53C; English chs ix, xxvi.
27. B. Colgrave (ed. and trans.), The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus (Cambridge, 1927), ch. XXXIII, p. 47.
28. Edited in M. Winterbottom, Three Lives of English Saints (Toronto, 1972), Ælfric, ch. 23; Wulfstan, ch. 34. There is a translation of Ælfric's Life, with Wulfstan's additions in footnotes, in D. Whitelock, English Historical Documents I, c. 500-1042, 2nd edn. (London, 1979), no. 235, pp. 903-11.
29. Edited in M. Winterbottom, Three Lives of English Saints (Toronto, 1972), Ælfric, ch. 23; Wulfstan, ch. 34. There is a translation of Ælfric's Life, with Wulfstan's additions in footnotes, in D. Whitelock, English Historical Documents I, c. 500-1042, 2nd edn. (London, 1979), no. 235, pp. 903-11.
30. Sancti Swithuni Wintoniensis Episcopi Translatio et Miracula, Auctore Lantfredo Monacho Wintoniensi, ed. E. P. Sauvage, Analecta Bollandiana, IV (1885), 367-410; W. W. Skeat (ed.), Ælfric's Lives of Saints, EETS, OS 76 (London, 1881), no. xxi, Of Saint Swythun', pp. 440-71.
31. Sancti Swithuni Wintoniensis Episcopi Translatio et Miracula, Auctore Lantfredo Monacho Wintoniensi, ed. E. P. Sauvage, Analecta Bollandiana, IV (1885), 367-410; W. W. Skeat (ed.), Ælfric's Lives of Saints, EETS, OS 76 (London, 1881), no. xxi, Of Saint Swythun', pp. 440-71.
32. W. Stubbs (ed.), Memorials of Saint Dunstan, Rolls Series 63 (London, 1874), Vitae Sancti Dunstani, B Life, p. 8, Adelard, Life, p. 55.
33. W. Stubbs (ed.), Memorials of Saint Dunstan, Rolls Series 63 (London, 1874), Vitae Sancti Dunstani, B Life, p. 8, Adelard, Life, p. 55.
34. P. Clemoes (ed.), Ælric's Catholic Homilies: The First Series, Text, EETS, Supplementary Series 17 (Oxford, 1997), lines 268-72, pp. 448-9.
35. R. Spindler, Das Altenglische Bussbuch (Sog. Confessionale Pseudo-Egberti) (Leipzig, 1934), p. 243. A similar penance is in the probably contemporary Pseudo-Egbert Penitential: see J. Raith (ed.), Die Altenglische Version des Halitgar'schen Bussbuches (Sog. Poenitentiale Pseudo-Ecgberti) (Hamburg, 1933), IV.18a, p. 56. The three requirements (to compensate for the wound, to do the victim's work while he is ill, and to obtain and pay for medical treatment) may have been constants, for they are also to be found in the Introduction to Alfred's Laws, 16 (F. Liebermann (ed.), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols. (Halle, 1903-16), I, pp. 32-3). Stephanie Hollis kindly pointed out these references to me.
36. R. Spindler, Das Altenglische Bussbuch (Sog. Confessionale Pseudo-Egberti) (Leipzig, 1934), p. 243. A similar penance is in the probably contemporary Pseudo-Egbert Penitential: see J. Raith (ed.), Die Altenglische Version des Halitgar'schen Bussbuches (Sog. Poenitentiale Pseudo-Ecgberti) (Hamburg, 1933), IV.18a, p. 56. The three requirements (to compensate for the wound, to do the victim's work while he is ill, and to obtain and pay for medical treatment) may have been constants, for they are also to be found in the Introduction to Alfred's Laws, 16 (F. Liebermann (ed.), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols. (Halle, 1903-16), I, pp. 32-3). Stephanie Hollis kindly pointed out these references to me.
37. R. Spindler, Das Altenglische Bussbuch (Sog. Confessionale Pseudo-Egberti) (Leipzig, 1934), p. 243. A similar penance is in the probably contemporary Pseudo-Egbert Penitential: see J. Raith (ed.), Die Altenglische Version des Halitgar'schen Bussbuches (Sog. Poenitentiale Pseudo-Ecgberti) (Hamburg, 1933), IV.18a, p. 56. The three requirements (to compensate for the wound, to do the victim's work while he is ill, and to obtain and pay for medical treatment) may have been constants, for they are also to be found in the Introduction to Alfred's Laws, 16 (F. Liebermann (ed.), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols. (Halle, 1903-16), I, pp. 32-3). Stephanie Hollis kindly pointed out these references to me. The three requirements (to compensate for the wound, to do the victim's work while he is ill, and to obtain and pay for medical treatment) may have been constants, for they are also to be found in the Introduction to Alfred's Laws, 16 (F. Liebermann (ed.), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols. (Halle, 1903-16), I, pp. 32-3). Stephanie Hollis kindly pointed out these references to me.
38. In W. J. Sedgefield (ed.), King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius De Consolatione Philosophiae (Oxford, 1899), XXXVIII.7, pp. 123-4, there is a comparison with a sick person who needs to be taken to a medic for treatment. The figure is also found in XXXVI.5, p. 107, and XXXIX.9, p. 132.
39. W. Horn and E. Born, The Plan of St. Gall, 3 vols. (Berkeley, 1979), III, p. 175.
40. S. Rubin, 'The Anglo-Saxon Physician', in M. Deegan and D. G. Scragg (eds.), Medicine in Early Medieval England: Four Papers, Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies (Manchester, 1989), pp. 7-8.
41. J. H. G. Grattan and C. Singer, Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine Illustrated Specially from the SemiPagan Text 'Lacmunga' (Oxford, 1952), figs. 6-7, pp. 11-12;
42. L. MacKinney, Medical Illustrations in Medieval Manuscripts (London, 1965), pp. 52-4, 70-1, figs. 48-50, 69.
43. R. R. Darlington (ed.), The 'Vita Wolfstani' of William of Malmesbury (London, 1928), II.4, pp. 27-8, 80;
44. M. Swanton (trans.), Three Lives of the Last Englishmen (New York, 1984), pp. 112-13.
45. Personal communication.
46. There is a word for a female medic, lacnystre (which looks Old English), applied metaphorically to an abbess in a post-Conquest version of the Benedictine Rule, but it seems unlikely that they were common. See M. M. A. Shröer (ed.), Der Winteney Version der Regula S. Benedicti (Halle, 1888), ch. xxviii, p. 69.
47. Bede, HE, IV.24.
48. Horn and Born, St. Gall Plan, esp. I, pp. 311-15;
49. III, pp. 54, 57-9.
50. H. P. R. Finberg, The Early Charters of Wessex (Leicester, 1964), no. 100, pp. 50, 184;
51. P. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography (London, 1968), no. 745.
52. M. Biddle, 'Excavations at Winchester, 1970: Ninth Interim Report', Antiquaries Journal, 52 (1972), pp. 118-23, plates XXXVIII-XLI.
53. T. Symons (ed. and trans.), Regularis Concordia Anglicae Nationis Monachorum Sanctimonialiunque, The Monastic Agreement of the Monks and Nuns of the English Nation (London, 1953), XII.65.
54. A. Schröer (ed.), Die angelsächsischen Prosabearbeitungen der Benedictinerregel [PB] (Kassel, 1888), ch. XXXVI.
55. Cameron, Anglo-Saxon Medicine, pp. 167-8.
56. Regularis Concordia, p. xxiii.
57. J. A. Robinson, The Times of St Dunstan (Oxford, 1923), p. 122,
58. discussing Schröer's Introduction to PB, vol. II, pp. XXIX, XXXIV.
59. P. J. Huggins, 'Excavation of Belgic and Romano-British Farm with Middle Saxon Cemetery and Churches at Nazeingbury, Essex, 1975-6', Essex Archaeology and History, 10 (1978), 47-75.
60. Sarah Foot has emphasized that the care of the sick was from the beginning a duty of the minsters, and devolved on women as well as men: 'Anglo-Saxon Minsters AD 597-ca. 900: Religious Life in England Before the Benedictine Reform' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1989), pp. 268-73.
61. Kealey, Medieval Medicus, pp. 84-5 and n.6.
62. J. Speed, The History of Great Britaine (London, 1611), pp. 787-802.
63. W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, 6 vols. (London, 1830), I, p. 1040.
64. For the career of Æthelmær, see S. Keynes, The Diplomas of King Æthelred 'the Unready', 978-1016 (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 132 and passim;
65. K. Barker (ed.), The Cerne Abbey Millennium Lectures (Cerne Abbas, 1988).
66. Regularis Concordia, X.62-3;
67. N. Orme and M. Webster, The English Hospital 1070-1570 (New Haven and London, 1995), pp. 17, 19-20, 23.
68. N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957, reissued 1990), no. 231.
69. H. J. De Vriend (ed.) The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de Quadrupedibus (Oxford, 1984), pp. xi-xliv, lxxxv-lxxxix.
70. L. E. Voigts, 'A New Look at a Manuscript Containing the Old English Translation of the Herbarium Apulei', Manuscripta, 20 (1976), 40-60.
71. M. A. D'Aronco and M. L. Cameron, The Old English Illustrated Pharmacopoeia: British Library Cotton Vitellius C.III, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 27 (Copenhagen, 1998), pp. 61-4.
72. A. K. Shapiro, 'Placebo Effects in Medicine, Psychotherapy, and Psychoanalysis', in A. E. Bergin and S. L. Garfield (eds.), Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Chance: An Empirical Analysis (New York, 1971), 439-73.
73. D'Aronco and Cameron, Illustrated Pharmacopoeia, p. 63.
74. For the preceding paragraphs, I have also used Ker, Catalogue;
75. de Vriend, Old English Herbarium, pp. xi-lxxxi;
76. For the preceding paragraphs, I have also used Ker, Catalogue; Cameron, Anglo-Saxon Medicine, especially pp. 59-64. Cameron, Anglo-Saxon Medicine, especially pp. 59-64.
77. A. L. Meaney, 'The Variant Versions of Old English Medical Remedies and the Compilation of Bald's Leechbook', Anglo-Saxon England, 13 (1984), p. 258.
78. Unfortunately, the editions of the Lacnunga, by Cockayne (Leechdoms, III, pp. 2-80) and Grattan and Singer are equally unsatisfactory in different ways, but a new edition by Edward Pettit is currently being revised for publication.
79. C. H. Talbot, Medicine in Medieval England (London, 1967), p. 23.
80. Meaney, 'Variant Versions', p. 258.
81. Cameron, Anglo-Saxon Medicine, p. 42.
82. De Vriend, Old English Herbarium, p. xxiii and passim.
83. Talbot, Medicine in Medieval England, pp. 9-23.
84. Edward Pettit (personal communication) tells me that the sources used are substantially the same as those already established for Bald's Leechbook. For details, we will have to wait for his edition.
85. Grattan and Singer, Anglo-Saxon Magic, p. 29. These remedies from classical sources probably include most of the first seventeen, the groups from XCIV to CVI, and CLXXX to CLXXXV (omitting CLXXXIII) which are paralleled in Bald's Leechbook, and several single remedies dotted about, such as number CXIII.
86. G. Storms, Anglo-Saxon Magic (The Hague, 1950), p. 29.
87. Clemoes, Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, p.450, lines 319-25.
88. For example, the periwinkle (Old English Herbarium, CLXXIX) had to be gathered with extreme care when clean from every impurity, only on four nights of the moon, and with a long Latin incantation.
89. The only good example is no. XCIII, the 'Fever Charm'; see n. 64 below.
90. Raith, Altenglische Version, 11.23, p. 30.
91. K. L. Jolly, Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Channs in Context (Chapel Hill, 1996).
92. Cf. V. I. J. Flint, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (Oxford, 1991).
93. A. L. Meaney, Anglo-Saxon Amulets and Curing Stones, British Archaeological Reports British Series 96 (Oxford, 1981), pp. 15-17. The word used for fever with delirium is dweorh, elsewhere 'dwarf and that seems logical to me. When I had measles at the age of five, I saw a procession of little men running around the picture rail in my bedroom, all pointing at me and shouting.
94. A. L. Meaney, 'Women, Witchcraft and Magic in Anglo-Saxon England', in D. G. Scragg (ed.), Superstition and Popular Medicine in Anglo-Saxon England, Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies (Manchester, 1989), pp. 25-5.
95. Clemoes, Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, pp. 442-3, 449-50 (lines 102-5, 304-7);
96. Skeat, ¿lfric's Lives of Saints, xvii, Of Auguries', lines 129-33.
97. Clemoes, Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, pp. 442-3, 449-50 (lines 102-5, 304-7); See also A. L. Meaney, ¿lfric and Idolatry', Journal of Religious History, 13 (1984), pp. 130-1. See also A. L. Meaney, ¿lfric and Idolatry', Journal of Religious History, 13 (1984), pp. 130-1.
98. Cnut II.5, 'Northumbrian Priests' Law', 54: Liebermann, Gesetze, I, pp. 312-3, 383.
99. Raith, Altenglische Version, 11.22, IV.16.
100. Ibid., pp. 29, 55.
101. For moden parallels, see W. G. Black, Folk-Medicine (London, 1883), pp. 101-2,
102. Ibid., pp. 29, 55. and A. L. Meaney, 'Women', p. 22. and A. L. Meaney, 'Women', p. 22.
103. Skeat, Ælfric's Lives of Saints, pp. 364-83, lines 148-50.
104. See also A. L. Meaney, 'Ælfric's Use of his Sources in his Homily on Auguries', English Studies, 66 (1985), p. 487.