Overview

Medicine and Healing in the Pre-Modern West traces the history of medicine and medical practice from Ancient Egypt through to the end of the Middle Ages. Featuring nearly one hundred primary documents and images, this book introduces students and scholars to the words and ideas of prominent physicians and humble healers, men and women, from across Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Each of the ten chronological and thematic chapters is given a significant historical introduction, in which each primary source is described in its original context. Many of the included source texts are newly translated by the editor, some of them appearing in English for the first time. Key Features The first history of medicine reader to cover both Antiquity and the Middle Ages in a single volume. Nearly one hundred primary sources, including several images. Each topic and reading is accompanied by an introduction from the editor, and explanatory annotations are included throughout to clarify unfamiliar concepts. Significant coverage of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim cultures in the Middle Ages. Many of the primary sources are newly translated, some of them available in English for the first time.

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9781554813902

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Reviews

We finally have a sorely needed volume of primary sources that illustrates the breadth, depth, vibrancy, and development of premodern medical thinking. Winston Black has assembled a remarkable collection of key texts and provided clear and concise introductions that contextualize the sources and highlight their significance. Unfamiliar terms and references are conveniently explained in the margins, making the already clear translations even more readable. Any course that addresses premodern health or healing will find this coherent, expertly curated, and accessible set of sources absolutely essential. -- Frederick Gibbs, University of New Mexico Medicine and Healing in the Premodern West is a welcome addition to the growing corpus of primary-source collections dealing with the history of science and medicine. Providing an eclectic range of numerous documents from the earliest civilizations in the Mediterranean basin through the central Middle Ages, the book can serve as a general grounding in the subject, as a supplemental text for survey courses, or as a source for further individualized research. The source texts--many of which are translated into English for the first time--come prefaced with helpful thematic overviews, and each text receives its own introduction. Medicine and Healing presents a nuanced yet manageable selection of sources; students will find it eminently fascinating. -- Christine Senecal, Shippensburg University Winston Black has chosen an intriguing array of primary sources on themes such as religious healing, ancient Egyptian medicine, the Islamicate world, surgery, women's medicine, and charms and magical medicine. Clear headnotes, careful definitions of technical or unfamiliar terms, and topic overviews will help undergraduates and new graduate students alike. Teaching early medicine just got easier! -- Mary Fissell, Johns Hopkins University

Author Information

Winston Black is a historian of medieval science, medicine, and culture. He is the editor of Henry of Huntingdon’s Anglicanus Ortus: A Verse Herbal of the Twelfth Century, author of The Middle Ages: Facts and Fictions, and co-author (with John M. Riddle) of A History of the Middle Ages, 300-1500, 2nd edition.

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