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Medieval Medicine: Its Mysteries and Science
Conjuring up a time when butchers and executioners knew more about anatomy than university-trained physicians, the phrase 'medieval medicine' sounds horrific to those of us with modern ideas on hygiene, instant pain relief and effective treatments. In those days no one could allay the dread of plague or the many other horrible diseases we have now forgotten. However, the medieval medical profession provided patients with everything from cosmetic procedures and dietary advice to life-saving surgeries and post-operative antibiotics. Intriguingly, alongside such expertise, some still believed that unicorns, dragons and elephants supplied vital medical ingredients and that horoscopes could predict the sex of unborn babies. This book explores the labyrinth of strange ideas and unlikely remedies that make up the weird, wonderful and occasionally beneficial world of medieval medicine.
304 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2015
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1021 people want to read
About the author
Toni Mount
31 books108 followersToni Mount is a writer, teacher and speaker, specialising in ordinary lives and fascinating characters from history. She has an MA by Research from the University of Kent. Diplomas in European Humanities, Literature and Creative Writing and a first class honours degree from the Open University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
January 22, 2017
I enjoyed this book and found it a thoroughly interesting read on ancient remedies and medicines. Today's modern world could learn a lot from our ancestors way of life and thinking.
July 27, 2016
An excellent little book which covers not only the remedies and procedures of medieval medicine, but the people involved, the hierarchies and the cultural context. Mount pushes on into the 17th century to show what progress was made. Anyone interested in medieval history should read this.
February 26, 2016
Excellent resource for my work-in-progress, whose female protagonist is a Renaissance doctor.
May 11, 2017
Excellent book, interesting and very easy to read. Highly recommended for those wanting a gentle overview of medieval medicine.
August 12, 2018
This is a really excellent book, managing to be deeply engaging, informative and interesting. It explores the concepts of medieval medicine, its dependence on classical texts and the church, its practitioners and patients, as well as going into the diagnosing and treating of various ailments. Mount also explores the science behind some of the treatments while acknowledging the outlandish ‘cures’ that existed.
The only thing that I felt detracted from the book is that sometimes the writing seemed a little amateurish – Mount sometimes diverges from her stated subject to talk about something connected and interesting, but not necessarily on-topic, and the returns to the subject with a short “Back to (subject)…”
The only thing that I felt detracted from the book is that sometimes the writing seemed a little amateurish – Mount sometimes diverges from her stated subject to talk about something connected and interesting, but not necessarily on-topic, and the returns to the subject with a short “Back to (subject)…”
January 23, 2023
for some reason me and freya were really worried about leprosy recently so we did some research and found out it’s actually treatable and then we were thinking about how in Merlin they were soooo mean to people with leprosy and somehow that conversation ended with her lending me this book 😌
August 18, 2019
Great book. Covers a large period of time, but concise and interesting, at times amusing. Great read
September 11, 2025
3.75
very useful for someone that's just introducing themselves to the topic like myself
very useful for someone that's just introducing themselves to the topic like myself
June 25, 2025
The subtitle suggests a confluence, like that of two rivers, between speculation and knowledge. The forces that shaped medieval medicine, alas, are not that straight-forward.
The author, Toni Mount, specializes in the analysis of medieval manuscripts. Rather than a chronological narrative, she offers multiple themes: the ideological framework of the Catholic Church, diagnostic practices, and the widening divergence of the professions of physician and surgeon. Unfortunately, this approach fails to provide coherence to an unruly deluge of ambiguous beliefs and contradictions. We learn that in 1381 apothecaries in York, England were able to stock expensive items like Dragon’s Blood (Chapter 4, “Diagnosing the Problem”). Further explanation is not forthcoming until page 119 (Chapter 6, “Treating the Problem – From the Sensible to the Unbelievable). Dragon’s Blood was a reddish resin from a tree native to the Canary Islands and Morocco (Dracaena draco). Back in the 1st century AD it was believed to alleviate unspecified gastro-intestinal problems. By 1402 it was considered one of many panaceas.
Mount points out that many medieval remedies have been proven effective. Dragon’s Blood aids coagulation. Willow bark (which contains the active ingredient in aspirin), Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) and Wormwood (Artemisia absithium, apparently have antiseptic properties. (p.109) Dwale was, according to one recipe, a concoction of boar’s gall, hemlock, bryony (a perennial which produces bright red berries), lettuce, opium poppy, henbane (a member of the nightshade family), and vinegar. Although hemlock, bryony, opium, and henbane do have medicinal properties, they are also highly toxic. Fortunately, bryony is also a laxative. Dwale was ingested as an anesthetic. Mount remarks with droll humor: “Hemlock, opium, and henbane could all put a patient to sleep – permanently.” (p.70) On the other hand, Mount also includes recipes so lurid and truly offensive that they make the brew of the three weird sisters of Macbeth seem whimsical by comparison.
The practice of medicine was seriously hampered by the absence of diagnostic tools. Something called the “Sweating Sickness” may have been any number of flu variants, or even the hantavirus. (p.30) Smallpox, chicken pox, measles, and German measles were confused with each other. Even The Treatise on the Smallpox and the Measles, written in 910 by Muhammad ibn Zukariya Razi has sown confusion as to his meaning among modern researchers. Likewise, the reader might be confused by Mount’s own inconsistent nomenclature. Malaria is referred to as “malaria,” “ague,” and “quarlaine fever.”
Advances were most obvious in the field of surgery. Mount cites Roger Frugard’s (c.1140-1195) work, The Practice of Surgery (1180), which mentions the use of egg white to seal puncture wounds and the probing methodology for extracting an embedded arrowhead. By 1403 John Bradmore was applying this technique alongside his own invention of a type of pincer to treat the future King Henry V. Analysis of the so-called Towton 16 skeleton from 1461 suggested sophisticated surgery applied to a previously healed wound.
Mount does an excellent job of identifying major figures in the history of medicine. Here, again, however, her rejection of a chronological narrative obscures their significance. It is left to us to recall that between the fall of the Roman Empire and around 1100, both reading and writing were rarities confined pretty much to the religious orders. This elevates our regard for the Arab commentators working between the 10th and 11th centuries. It wasn’t that they announced any astonishing breakthroughs. Rather, they recovered and preserved what had already once been known. By the early 13th century, this labor of compilation was furthered by Gilbertus Anglicus (1180-1250) with his Compendium Medicinae. Mount writes: “This was an attempt to bring together all that was best practice in medicine and surgery at the time.” (p.188)
The reliance of historians on documents undervalues the role of women as healers, even in this book. In chapter 7, “When the Doctor – or the Patient – Is a woman,” the focus is mainly on pregnancy, childbirth, birth control, and abortion. However, well before the 12th and 13th centuries of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) and Trotula of Salerno (mid 12th century), it is not unreasonable to believe herbal knowledge was passed down from grandmother to daughter to grandchild through word of mouth. Women may even have cultivated or foraged, and sold the raw materials that apothecaries worked with. These women also had something even more valuable, something we would recognize today as indispensable – trust.
It is tempting to view medieval medicine in the rearview mirror with smug contempt. After all, we no longer believe in amulets, incantations, and quack bromides (looking at you, hydroxychloroquine)! Mount, however, shows us glimpses of medieval pragmatism. While astrology was part of the medical curriculum, its application left plenty of wiggle room. Who could say with accuracy the exact time they were born or the exact moment the first symptom occurred? Numerology and the Sphere of Pythagorus were backup solutions. Mount found dozens of different Spheres of Pythagorus. When her research found discrepant results she cheerfully concludes: “…there was every chance of getting the desired answer, one way or another.” (p.95)
Despite the optimism Mount ends with, we must also confront the notion that we are not all that different in our impulses and emotions from the denizens of the medieval period – something to think about, at least, beyond the pages of this book.
I read the paperback edition of this book, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, 2016. It was the selection of our local book club. Rated it 2.5 stars, upped to 3.
NOTES:
I found it quite charming that some imaginary bird could turn its beak up at you and thus seal your doom! Caladrius https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/the-cala...
These are some lovely facsimiles of medieval botanicals https://openbook.lib.utah.edu/tag/ibn...
Both mental illness and variolation fell outside the scope of this book https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/ho...
Smallpox variolation https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlig...
Healing and witchcraft were never examined in the book. Here is a brief note from the University of Alabama, Birmingham https://guides.library.uab.edu/c.php?...
An article on literacy https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/literac...
A concise history of paper making https://paper.gatech.edu/sites/defaul...
The author, Toni Mount, specializes in the analysis of medieval manuscripts. Rather than a chronological narrative, she offers multiple themes: the ideological framework of the Catholic Church, diagnostic practices, and the widening divergence of the professions of physician and surgeon. Unfortunately, this approach fails to provide coherence to an unruly deluge of ambiguous beliefs and contradictions. We learn that in 1381 apothecaries in York, England were able to stock expensive items like Dragon’s Blood (Chapter 4, “Diagnosing the Problem”). Further explanation is not forthcoming until page 119 (Chapter 6, “Treating the Problem – From the Sensible to the Unbelievable). Dragon’s Blood was a reddish resin from a tree native to the Canary Islands and Morocco (Dracaena draco). Back in the 1st century AD it was believed to alleviate unspecified gastro-intestinal problems. By 1402 it was considered one of many panaceas.
Mount points out that many medieval remedies have been proven effective. Dragon’s Blood aids coagulation. Willow bark (which contains the active ingredient in aspirin), Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) and Wormwood (Artemisia absithium, apparently have antiseptic properties. (p.109) Dwale was, according to one recipe, a concoction of boar’s gall, hemlock, bryony (a perennial which produces bright red berries), lettuce, opium poppy, henbane (a member of the nightshade family), and vinegar. Although hemlock, bryony, opium, and henbane do have medicinal properties, they are also highly toxic. Fortunately, bryony is also a laxative. Dwale was ingested as an anesthetic. Mount remarks with droll humor: “Hemlock, opium, and henbane could all put a patient to sleep – permanently.” (p.70) On the other hand, Mount also includes recipes so lurid and truly offensive that they make the brew of the three weird sisters of Macbeth seem whimsical by comparison.
The practice of medicine was seriously hampered by the absence of diagnostic tools. Something called the “Sweating Sickness” may have been any number of flu variants, or even the hantavirus. (p.30) Smallpox, chicken pox, measles, and German measles were confused with each other. Even The Treatise on the Smallpox and the Measles, written in 910 by Muhammad ibn Zukariya Razi has sown confusion as to his meaning among modern researchers. Likewise, the reader might be confused by Mount’s own inconsistent nomenclature. Malaria is referred to as “malaria,” “ague,” and “quarlaine fever.”
Advances were most obvious in the field of surgery. Mount cites Roger Frugard’s (c.1140-1195) work, The Practice of Surgery (1180), which mentions the use of egg white to seal puncture wounds and the probing methodology for extracting an embedded arrowhead. By 1403 John Bradmore was applying this technique alongside his own invention of a type of pincer to treat the future King Henry V. Analysis of the so-called Towton 16 skeleton from 1461 suggested sophisticated surgery applied to a previously healed wound.
Mount does an excellent job of identifying major figures in the history of medicine. Here, again, however, her rejection of a chronological narrative obscures their significance. It is left to us to recall that between the fall of the Roman Empire and around 1100, both reading and writing were rarities confined pretty much to the religious orders. This elevates our regard for the Arab commentators working between the 10th and 11th centuries. It wasn’t that they announced any astonishing breakthroughs. Rather, they recovered and preserved what had already once been known. By the early 13th century, this labor of compilation was furthered by Gilbertus Anglicus (1180-1250) with his Compendium Medicinae. Mount writes: “This was an attempt to bring together all that was best practice in medicine and surgery at the time.” (p.188)
The reliance of historians on documents undervalues the role of women as healers, even in this book. In chapter 7, “When the Doctor – or the Patient – Is a woman,” the focus is mainly on pregnancy, childbirth, birth control, and abortion. However, well before the 12th and 13th centuries of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) and Trotula of Salerno (mid 12th century), it is not unreasonable to believe herbal knowledge was passed down from grandmother to daughter to grandchild through word of mouth. Women may even have cultivated or foraged, and sold the raw materials that apothecaries worked with. These women also had something even more valuable, something we would recognize today as indispensable – trust.
It is tempting to view medieval medicine in the rearview mirror with smug contempt. After all, we no longer believe in amulets, incantations, and quack bromides (looking at you, hydroxychloroquine)! Mount, however, shows us glimpses of medieval pragmatism. While astrology was part of the medical curriculum, its application left plenty of wiggle room. Who could say with accuracy the exact time they were born or the exact moment the first symptom occurred? Numerology and the Sphere of Pythagorus were backup solutions. Mount found dozens of different Spheres of Pythagorus. When her research found discrepant results she cheerfully concludes: “…there was every chance of getting the desired answer, one way or another.” (p.95)
Despite the optimism Mount ends with, we must also confront the notion that we are not all that different in our impulses and emotions from the denizens of the medieval period – something to think about, at least, beyond the pages of this book.
I read the paperback edition of this book, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, 2016. It was the selection of our local book club. Rated it 2.5 stars, upped to 3.
NOTES:
I found it quite charming that some imaginary bird could turn its beak up at you and thus seal your doom! Caladrius https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/the-cala...
These are some lovely facsimiles of medieval botanicals https://openbook.lib.utah.edu/tag/ibn...
Both mental illness and variolation fell outside the scope of this book https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/ho...
Smallpox variolation https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlig...
Healing and witchcraft were never examined in the book. Here is a brief note from the University of Alabama, Birmingham https://guides.library.uab.edu/c.php?...
An article on literacy https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/literac...
A concise history of paper making https://paper.gatech.edu/sites/defaul...
June 29, 2021
This fascinating book looks at medical beliefs and practices from the ancients through the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. We learn about the medical profession's distinct branches (physicians, surgeons, barbers, midwives, apothecaries); influencers of the day, both male and female, and what they believed caused disease; medicinal ingredients and treatments (rare, bizarre, brutal, sometimes effective and often lethal); notable patient cases; and how the slow progression of thought, experimentation and scientific discovery led to how medicine is practiced today. This all sounds rather dry, but it's anything but; the material is well-organized and presented in an approachable, entertaining style, illustrated by a central section of colour plates. The information on folk medicine, herbal remedies and alchemy - the author includes some authentic medieval recipes (or "receipts") - was both intriguing and appalling! I eagerly look forward to reading more of this author's work.
March 27, 2021
This book has all the requisite Latin and scientific terms needed for a scholarly work but is still easy and fun to read. It didn't have as much herbal info as I would have liked but that's OK! I was fascinated by the various Medieval guilds governing the practice of medicine.
Apothecaries and barber/surgeons were considered "beneath" the university educated doctors. Midwives were ranked at the bottom. Some women were allowed to be apothecaries or barber/surgeons - especially if supervised by a brother or father already in the business. Doctors were expensive and probably the poor benefited because of this. Early medieval doctors used astrological charts for diagnosis. The poor were treated by herbalists who used some superstitious methods but, unlike the doctors, they also common sense.
Apothecaries and barber/surgeons were considered "beneath" the university educated doctors. Midwives were ranked at the bottom. Some women were allowed to be apothecaries or barber/surgeons - especially if supervised by a brother or father already in the business. Doctors were expensive and probably the poor benefited because of this. Early medieval doctors used astrological charts for diagnosis. The poor were treated by herbalists who used some superstitious methods but, unlike the doctors, they also common sense.
March 31, 2020
Too short! It could have been one thousand pages long! Desperate to see how much more information could have been into it!!!
October 30, 2020
This is one of those books that was fine - it wasn't a slog but also didn't make much impression on me. As a research book, it's also a rare one that I didn't take lots of notes about (though that might be research fatigue? because there was lots of good stuff in there that I will probably refer back to using the index at a later date.)
It's a pretty comprehensive thematic look at medicine in the Middle Ages (yes, I am going to use Medieval and Middle Ages pretty much interchangeably here). Rather than focusing heavily on the medicines themselves, this book looks more at the ideas behind it - how did they learn and pass knowledge on? What was the basis for a diagnosis and prognosis? Who was involved and how were they regulated? What about women and medicine?
I liked this more thematic approach, as it feels a lot more holistic and useful than just lots of tinctures that don't actually give a sense of the profession and society. Also my eyes tend to glaze after lists of herbs with names I'm not used to (too much time spent in a chemistry lab looking at synthesis instructions!) Instead, this style lets you get to grips with the principles behind the treatment of disease, with lots of examples of people named in records. The names do help attach it to real figures, and make it feel more tangible.
MEDIEVAL MEDICINE goes beyond just the Middle Ages at the end, which was a really nice thematic end. The final few chapters look into Tudor and Stuart Medicine, and then what progress had been made during the Medieval Period and what it laid the groundworks for. My GCSE History was primarily focused on the history and evolution of medicine, so it was nice to see familiar themes bookending the book (but in more detail.)
I think part of what made this book less engaging for me was that I have read so much non-fiction in recent weeks and I'm starting to get a little non-fictioned-out. I am rather looking forwards to just reading fiction next month!
It's a pretty comprehensive thematic look at medicine in the Middle Ages (yes, I am going to use Medieval and Middle Ages pretty much interchangeably here). Rather than focusing heavily on the medicines themselves, this book looks more at the ideas behind it - how did they learn and pass knowledge on? What was the basis for a diagnosis and prognosis? Who was involved and how were they regulated? What about women and medicine?
I liked this more thematic approach, as it feels a lot more holistic and useful than just lots of tinctures that don't actually give a sense of the profession and society. Also my eyes tend to glaze after lists of herbs with names I'm not used to (too much time spent in a chemistry lab looking at synthesis instructions!) Instead, this style lets you get to grips with the principles behind the treatment of disease, with lots of examples of people named in records. The names do help attach it to real figures, and make it feel more tangible.
MEDIEVAL MEDICINE goes beyond just the Middle Ages at the end, which was a really nice thematic end. The final few chapters look into Tudor and Stuart Medicine, and then what progress had been made during the Medieval Period and what it laid the groundworks for. My GCSE History was primarily focused on the history and evolution of medicine, so it was nice to see familiar themes bookending the book (but in more detail.)
I think part of what made this book less engaging for me was that I have read so much non-fiction in recent weeks and I'm starting to get a little non-fictioned-out. I am rather looking forwards to just reading fiction next month!
November 10, 2017
Medieval Medicine (Its mysteries and science) by Toni Mount
A fascinating and informative, sometimes jaw-dropping read for medieval history fans. The book also includes a chapter on Tudor medicine.
“The land called Ebbgate used to be right of way until ... Thomas at Wytte and William de Hockele built latrines which stuck out from walls of houses from [which] human filth falls out onto the heads of passers-by.”
The first real jaw-dropper comes in chapter 3 “Adam knew everything”.
“In the beginning, God created Adam... Not so perfect any longer Adam and Eve produced offspring, every generation a little less perfect than their parents”.
“Eventually by medieval times, scholars believed that mankind had become deplorably ignorant. Far from assuming, as we do today, that knowledge increases as we discover more and more about life, the universe and medicine in particular, they viewed the matter in reverse: knowledge was diminishing.”
“The answer was to go way back to the earliest known written sources to recover what had been lost.”
Despite the progress made during the renaissance period, and some application of scientific method by people like William Harvey, poor King Charles II dies horribly after being bled to death and poisoned by “a surfeit of physicians”.
“… if only Charles had been a poor man unable to afford numerous doctors, he may well have recovered from the slight stroke which began the course of treatment.”
A fascinating and informative, sometimes jaw-dropping read for medieval history fans. The book also includes a chapter on Tudor medicine.
“The land called Ebbgate used to be right of way until ... Thomas at Wytte and William de Hockele built latrines which stuck out from walls of houses from [which] human filth falls out onto the heads of passers-by.”
The first real jaw-dropper comes in chapter 3 “Adam knew everything”.
“In the beginning, God created Adam... Not so perfect any longer Adam and Eve produced offspring, every generation a little less perfect than their parents”.
“Eventually by medieval times, scholars believed that mankind had become deplorably ignorant. Far from assuming, as we do today, that knowledge increases as we discover more and more about life, the universe and medicine in particular, they viewed the matter in reverse: knowledge was diminishing.”
“The answer was to go way back to the earliest known written sources to recover what had been lost.”
Despite the progress made during the renaissance period, and some application of scientific method by people like William Harvey, poor King Charles II dies horribly after being bled to death and poisoned by “a surfeit of physicians”.
“… if only Charles had been a poor man unable to afford numerous doctors, he may well have recovered from the slight stroke which began the course of treatment.”
January 5, 2022
A borderline 3-star / 4-star book, but I enjoyed reading it, so I lean more to the 4-star.
As far as drawbacks and problems, Wikipedia was cited a bit too often as a source for my liking and the author's style was inconsistent, sometimes shifting to an informal tone that bordered an amateurish. Then again, this wasn't written or presented as an academic text, so it's really not that big of a deal to me.
The book also gave light treatment to several important subjects (or skipped them altogether), including the "exchanges" with the Arab and Jewish worlds. Again, though, this isn't an encyclopedia or a textbook.
As far as positives go, while there wasn't much I hadn't seen before in this book, I've studied a lot of medieval history and this was an excellent "consolidation" of a lot of that information into an easy-to-read book that doesn't really get dry, stuffy, or tedious.
All in all, a pleasant reader on the subject and a good launching point for people new to the subject. Maybe not so useful for people with a high level of familiarity with the subject, though.
As far as drawbacks and problems, Wikipedia was cited a bit too often as a source for my liking and the author's style was inconsistent, sometimes shifting to an informal tone that bordered an amateurish. Then again, this wasn't written or presented as an academic text, so it's really not that big of a deal to me.
The book also gave light treatment to several important subjects (or skipped them altogether), including the "exchanges" with the Arab and Jewish worlds. Again, though, this isn't an encyclopedia or a textbook.
As far as positives go, while there wasn't much I hadn't seen before in this book, I've studied a lot of medieval history and this was an excellent "consolidation" of a lot of that information into an easy-to-read book that doesn't really get dry, stuffy, or tedious.
All in all, a pleasant reader on the subject and a good launching point for people new to the subject. Maybe not so useful for people with a high level of familiarity with the subject, though.
August 17, 2020
This was an excellent read. As someone who doesn't have any deep knowledge on the subject, this was super accessible and fascinating. I love the author's subtle sense of humour and the almost biographical glimpses into many different practitioners.
I've never held much stock in herbal remedies beyond lemon and honey for a sore throat, but this was also very humbling to learn that, obviously, so much of modern medicine is born from the natural world that our predecessors had to depend on. What is more humbling is learning that many natural ingredients are still important to modern medicines for treating things like diabetes and creating asperin.
I don't often read non-fiction quickly, but I blitzed this and enjoyed the learning. Deffo recommend.
I've never held much stock in herbal remedies beyond lemon and honey for a sore throat, but this was also very humbling to learn that, obviously, so much of modern medicine is born from the natural world that our predecessors had to depend on. What is more humbling is learning that many natural ingredients are still important to modern medicines for treating things like diabetes and creating asperin.
I don't often read non-fiction quickly, but I blitzed this and enjoyed the learning. Deffo recommend.
March 22, 2019
Picked this up on a whim based on the title, I love medical and medieval history, and was pleasantly surprised by this book, I felt like I learned a lot and enjoyed the way the chapters were paced, it was fascinating to find out about the methods of diagnosis and treatments our ancestors used, and how some of these cures are still in use today even with our supposedly more advanced modern medicine. I personally also enjoyed the section on the discoveries of William Harvey having been treated at the hospital named after him. Overall I would definitely recommend this book!
December 24, 2020
There are so many tidbits of history; information on the foundations for modern medicine; and etymology in this book. I really liked reading the history of Hildegard of Bingen. The book is well-organized and an interesting read. There are other sources that better discuss the plague but since this was not the book's subject, I overlooked those discrepancies. And, people are allowed to have different opinions and conclusions. Otherwise, a good read that I will likely return to in the future. There was too much information to retain in only one reading.
December 31, 2024
An interesting compendium of the various treatments and cures provided by medieval doctors. As it turns out, they were much better in some areas, in particular the treatment of battlefield injuries, than you might expect: men survived some truly horrific injuries and lived to fight another day. However, there was a little too much of the old and tired trope of the Church banning research. Nevertheless, a good research book for the period.
January 19, 2024
Deeply fascinating. This is not presented as a list of medieval cures, which might have gotten tiresome eventually. Instead, it's more about the process of medical knowledge: how did medieval doctors know what they did about medicine, and how did they come to new conclusions? It definitely makes for a much more interesting read than a dry catalog.
July 15, 2020
A fascinating book which I was eager to go to bed to read every night. The first chapter is about epidemics, which I found very timely, as we struggle through the covid-19 pandemic.
The writing flows and is very clear. No trite phrases, which I always am happy to see.
The writing flows and is very clear. No trite phrases, which I always am happy to see.
June 10, 2022
I absolutely loved this book!! Although my book has a different title “Medieval Medicine:it’s mysteries and science” the back of the book reads the same and the barcode for Goodreads sent me here. I read this on the plane to and from England and I found this book absolutely fascinating.
May 20, 2019
absolutely fascinating, I felt like I learned a lot about the topic.
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November 25, 2019I really loved this book, it was really informative, but still easy and fun to read.
February 12, 2021
Very informative but I’m not a fan of how many sources were used from Wikipedia. There were also a few typos. A good book, but I think it’s best as a jumping off point. I learned a lot though.
February 28, 2021
It’s a great introduction to the subject. I like how the author delved into the lives of historical people to give a better feel for the time.
January 20, 2022
Thoroughly enjoyable. So many interesting facts, and I learned so much. I enjoyed the author’s approachable voice, it made for an easy and enjoyable read.
May 2, 2022
Super readable and very interesting. I just wish it were longer!
May 25, 2023
so interesting & entertaining.
April 1, 2024
Best book I've read on historic medicine. Really well written, it just gets a bit dull/long in a few parts.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews