Details

Subject(s)

• Medicine, Medieval—England—Sources [Browse]
• Medicine, Medieval—Sources [Browse]
• Anglo-Saxons—Medicine—Early works to 1800—Criticism and interpretation [Browse]
• Materia medica—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• English language—Old English, ca. 450-1100—Texts [Browse]
• Latin language, Medieval and modern—England—Texts [Browse]

Series

• Anglo-Saxon studies ; 38. [More in this series]
• Anglo-Saxon studies ; 38 [More in this series]

Summary note

Four complete medical collections survive from Anglo-Saxon England. These were first edited by Oswald Cockayne in the nineteenth century and came to be known by the names Bald's Leechbook, Leechbook III, the Lacnunga, and the Old English Pharmacopeia. Together these works represent the earliest complete collections of medical material in a western vernacular language.This book examines these texts as products of a learned literary culture. While earlier scholarship tended to emphasise the relationship of these works to folk belief or popular culture, this study suggests that all four extant collections were probably produced in major ecclesiastical centres. It examines the collections individually, emphasising their differences of content and purpose, while arguing that each consistently displays connections with an elite intellectual culture. The final chapter considers the fundamentally positive depiction of doctors and medicine found within literary and ecclesiastical works from the period and suggests that the high esteem for medicine in literate circles may have favoured the study and translation of medical texts. EMILY KESLING gained her DPhil from the University of Oxford; she is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN

• 9781843845492
• 1843845490 (hardcover)

OCLC

1110450040

Statement on language in description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...