Premodern Medicine & Disease

Catalog description

From our twenty-first-century perspective, medieval medical treatments have a reputation for being misguided, painful, and bizarre. While this course will confront the stranger aspects of medieval medicine, we will attempt to understand them according to the historical logic of pre-modern practices. We will explore points of convergence between Eastern and Western medicine, see how saints and doctors competed for popular authority, investigate the origins of the professional study of medicine, and discuss the impact of epidemics like the Black Death. We begin with Hippocrates and end around 1600 with Renaissance anatomists. Offered regularly.