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HIST 118: History of Science - Resources on Ancient and Medieval Medicine (HC): Primary Sources

History 118: History of Science - Resources on Ancient and Medieval Medicine (Hayton) Fall 2014

Source Anthologies

Collections of primary texts in anthologies can be good for browsing. They touch on many different issues, often excerpting brief passages from full works that you can find in the tricolleges or through interlibrary loan.

Primary Sources Collections

     There are some online collections available for medieval texts.  Haverford has access to Early English Books Online (EEBO). Other primary source collections like Gallica from France's Bibliothèque national are open access on the Web.

      Still other sources are available in modern printed editions.  Like these titles available in the tri-colleges:

  Medieval English Medical Texts   [Collection of texts on a CD-ROM amounting to half a million words, written 1350 to 1500 CE]
  Sex, Aging & Death in a medieval Medical Compendium.  Edited by M. Teresa Tavormina  [Includes translations of ten medieval medical texts including ones about aging, fertility, longevity, women's health, plague, medical instruments, and the planets]
 Modern editions, facsimiles, and copies on microfilm can be borrowed through E Z Borrow or interlibrary loan if they are not in Tripod.

Plague Scene

 A child and a monk fall victim to the plague as Pope Gregory I ( 590-604 CE) invokes God's protection

Illumination in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, an early 15th century prayerbook, fol. 71v  (Wikimedia Commons)

Image Sources