Medica

CFP: Medica and SSDMA at Leeds 2012

2011-08-16T11:42:00.005-04:00

Medica and SSDMA (Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages) are co-sponsoring the following strand of sessions at the 2012 International Medieval Congress in Leeds (UK), 9-12 July.

The theme of the 2012 conference is "Rules to Follow (or Not)" and our sessions are:

Medicine and Rules: Children and Childbirth
Medicine and Rules: Law and Institutions
Medicine and Rules: Social Fabrication of Ability and Disability
Medicine and Rules: Theory and Practice

If you are interested in giving a paper or chairing any of these sessions, please contact Wendy Turner wturner@aug.edu as soon as possible, preferably by the end of August 2011.

Or if you know of anyone who might be in presenting of chairing a session, please forward this call to them.

Wendy J. Turner, PhD

Professor, History
History, Anthropology, and Philosophy Department
Augusta State University
2500 Walton Way
Augusta, GA 30904-2200
706-667-4563
wturner@aug.edu

CFPs: Medica at Kalamazoo 2012

2011-08-03T15:46:00.004-04:00

Call for Papers: 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan, 10-13 May 2012

1) Noble Suffering: Representations of the Experience of Pain

Sponsor: Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages

This session will examine the redemptive potential for pain and suffering as evidenced in the material and literary culture of medieval Europe. We invite proposals that investigate portrayals of both emotional and physical suffering in religious and secular art and literature. Speakers are encouraged to explore representations of redemptive pain as expressed in images, objects, and texts from a broad range of perspectives, from saint to sinner, romantic hero to base criminal.

Possible topics include:

Images of pain in religious art and texts, such as renditions of scripture, the lives of the saints, etc.
Representations of pain in literature, such as romance, drama, fabliaux, etc.
Images and treatment of pain in medical texts
Associations of pain and suffering with specific diseases, such as leprosy
Pain and suffering in secular punishment

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words and a completed Participant Information Form (PIF) by e-mail to Linda Migl Keyser (keyserl@georgetown.edu) by 15 September 2011.

Additional information for applicants and the PIF are available at http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html.

2) Health and Healing in Early Medieval Medicine: Influences, Theory and Practices

Co-sponsors: Medica: the Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages and The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe

This interdisciplinary session will explore all aspects of the health and healing in Europe and the Mediterranean world from approximately 400 to 1100 AD. We are open to all ways of measuring health and welfare from archaeology to psychology and literature. Diseases, concepts of healing, and the responses of early medieval populations to disease are of special interest.

We are seeking papers on any of the following topics:

- All aspects of early medieval health including (mal)nutrition, child mortality, aging, health beliefs, and health practices.
- All aspects of the Plague of Justinian and other infectious diseases
- Bioarchaeology of early medieval populations.
- All aspects of early medieval medical practice in art, literature, history, and archaeology.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words and the Participant Information Form should be sent to Michelle Ziegler at ZieglerM@slu.edu by September 15.

The Participant Information Form and additional information be found at http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html.

Medica at Leeds 11-14 July, 2011

2011-05-18T14:18:00.014-04:00

For those of you attending the International Medieval Congress at Leeds this July, be sure to check out the sessions Medica is co-sponsoring with the Wellcome Trust this year:

The Rich Man's Feast and the Poor Man's Fare: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Nutritional Health in the Middle Ages

Date: Tuesday, 12 July

Sponsor: Wellcome Trust / Medica: Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages

Organizer: Iona McCleery, University of Leeds

I. Regimen for Rich and Poor (9:00-10:30 a.m.)

Moderator: Alex Bamji, University of Leeds

Rich and Poor at the Hospital's Table: The Case of Nossa Senhora do Popolo, 1518-1580; Lisbeth de Oliveira Rodrigues, Instituto de Ciencias Sociais, Universidade do Minho
Medieval Dietetic Instructions Found in the Cairo Genizah in Prescriptions from the Mediterranean Area; Efraim Lev, University of Haifa
Applying Cultural Methods in Research of Medical History: Medieval Arab Medicine as a Case Study; Uri Mayer-Chissick, University of Haifa

II. Cooking Food for the Modern Public (11:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m.)

Moderator: Vicky Shearman, Clarke Hall Educational Museum, Wakefield

Medieval Food"and Cookery from the Practical Standpoint of "Living History Displays" and "Real Meals for Real People"; Jenny Rogers, Independent Scholar, Perthshire and Julia Waugh, Independent Scholar, Spalding
Engaging the Public in Healthy Eating through Bioarchaeology; Jo Buckberry, University of Bradford
Experiments, Education, and Entertainment: The Opportunities and Problems with Historical Cookery Demonstrations at Historic Sites; Richard Fitch, Tudor Kitchen, Hampton Court Palace
Was Medieval Food Healthy?: An Interdisciplinary Approach; Iona McCleery, University of Leeds

III. Feasting and Fasting (2:15-3:45 p.m.)

Moderator: Christopher Woolgar, Hartley Library/ Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Culture, University of Southampton

Eating Like a King, a Saint, or a Horse: Food and Status in Anglo-Saxon England; Debby Banham, University of Cambridge
Food for the Body, Sustenance for the Soul: A Stable Isotope Investigation of Diet at the Early Medieval Monastery at Tarbat, Scotland; Shirley Ann Curtis, University of Liverpool
From Simnel to Horsebread: The Regulation of Bread for the Rich and Poor in Late Medieval England; Sarah Peters Kernan, Ohio State University

IV. Early Medieval Recipes: Theory and Practice (4:30-6:00 p.m.)

Moderator: Alaric Hall, University of Leeds

Apicius: Aspects of the Incorporation of a Cookery Book in the Early Middle Ages, 8th and 9th Centuries; Wanessa Asfora, Centro Universitario Senac, Sao Paulo
Rich Pickings from a Seeming Poverty of Evidence: Cuisine in the Eastern Empire; Timothy Dawson, Armley Mills, Leeds Museums & Galleries, Leeds City Council
Feasting at Tintagel in the Late Saxon Period; Melanie Ezra-Logue, Independent Scholar, Truro and Daniel Ezra-Logue, Independent Scholar, Truro

Notes From the President

2011-05-18T13:14:00.055-04:00

Hot and dry . . .

. . . then chilly and wet.

That was Kalamazoo mid-May. But no matter the weather, this year's Medieval Congress was bustling with interesting sessions and lively conversations.

Medica and AVISTA: the Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Technology, Science and Art in the Middle Ages were exceptionally busy at Kalamazoo this year. Thursday, May 12th, the two societies co-sponsored four excellent and very well attended sessions on The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing. The series of sessions began with a moving memorial to Geoff Egan by his colleague from the British Museum Michael Lewis. Through his work with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, Geoff was researching pilgrim badges whose designs make reference to the curing or alleviation of illness and was to have presented his findings in session I: Images and Objects. His passing at the end of 2010 deprives us all of a valued scholar and good friend; his absence from our sessions was acutely felt.

The speakers of The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing then commenced delving deeply into an investigation of the objects, images, sites, and texts of medieval medicine (see the posting for Monday, January 11, 2011 for the final list of papers and speakers in this series). I'm happy to report that Barbara Bowers of AVISTA and myself, in concert with Ashgate Publishing, have begun the process of developing a volume to publish the proceedings from this special series of sessions. I'll keep you apprised of developments.

Thursday, May 12th also marked Medica's annual business meeting. The highlights of that meeting follow:

Announcements and Updates:

W. Harry York (Portland State University) was formally named Medica's Vice President. Congratulations and thanks,Harry.
Two sessions were proposed for submission to the 2012 Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo: 1) Noble Suffering: Representations of the Experience of Pain will focus on soliciting papers that investigate the redemptive aspects of both emotional and physical suffering as evidenced in medieval art and literature, and 2) Health and Healing in Early Medieval Medicine: Influences, Theory, and Practice, co-sponsored with The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe, will examine all aspects of health and healing in Europe and the Mediterranean world from approximately 400 to 1100 AD.
A tentative session on Law and Medicine in the Middle Ages was broached for the 2012 Leeds Medieval Congress. The congress's theme, "Rules to Follow (or Not)," will be held 9-12 July, 2012. Anyone interested in organizing this session should contact me (keyserl@georgetown.edu).
And speaking of the Medieval Congress at Leeds, Iona McCleery filled us in on the papers being presented in the four sessions that make up The Rich Man's Feast and the Poor Man's Fare: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Nutritional Health in the Middle Ages at this year's conference (11-14 July). Co-sponsored by the Wellcome Trust and Medica, this series of sessions will examine diet and nutrition in the MiddleAges from a variety of theoretical and practical perspectives. All four sessions will be held on Tuesday, 12 July: I) Regimen for Rich and Poor, II) Cooking Food for the Modern Public, III) Feasting and Fasting, and IV) Early Medieval Recipes: Theory and Practice. Thank you for all your hard work in organizing these sessions, Iona! (see the posting on Leeds 2011 for more details on speakers and papers)
Membership dues was collected; Medica's membership runs from Kalamazoo conference to conference (i.e. May to May). Members who were unable to attend this year's conference can pay their dues directly to Medica's Treasurer, Gerard NeCastro. Please contact Gerard for details (necastro@umaine.edu).
Addendum: Following the conference, Medica was offered the opportunity to co-sponsor two sessions in honor of our own John M. Riddle at the 2012 Kalamazoo Medieval Congress. The sessions have been proposed by the Institute for Medieval Studies at University of New Mexico and will also be co-sponsored by the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions.

All in all, this year's Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo was very exciting and successful for Medica. Many thanks to all those colleagues whose hard work made that possible. And many thanks to Medica's members and friends for your continuing support.

Cheers and have a restful and fun summer,

Linda

Linda Migl Keyser, Ph.D.

President, Medica

Women and Medicine at the Folger

2011-02-14T12:03:00.012-05:00

For those of you who will be in the Washington, D.C. area in the next few months, be sure to stop by and visit the Folger Shakepeare Library's current exhibit, Beyond Home Remedy: Women, Medicine, and Science.

Running until May 14, 2011, the exhibit explores early modern women's medical work by "drawing on manuscript recipe books and printed medical treatises owned and written by women of all classes, as well as natural history specimens from the Smithsonian Institution, . . . and relates it to the published works of the major male scientists of the day."

Of special interest to Medica members, among the books featured in the Library' gift shop display for the exhibition is our own Louise Bishop's Word, Stones, & Herbs: The Healing Word in Medieval and Early Modern England (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2007). Way to go, Louise!

For more information on the exhibit, go to http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=3699.

The Sacred and the Secular at Kalamazoo 2011 - Final Listing

2011-01-31T16:43:00.047-05:00

Dear Friends and Members,

At this year's International Medieval Congress at Western Michigan University (May 12-15, Kalamazoo, Michigan), Medica joins forces with AVISTA: The Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art to present the following 4 sessions devoted to examining The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing (SSMH):

Thursday 10 a.m. - Bernhard Brown & Gold Room
(Session 47) SSMH I: Images and Objects
Organizers: Barbara S. Bowers (Ohio State Univ.) and Linda Migl Keyser (Univ. of Maryland)
Presider: Carol Neuman de Vegvar (Ohio Wesleyan Univ.)

Cure for the Common Common: Images and Objects Used by the Lower Classes for Healing, Protecting and Worship
Sarah Blick (Kenyon College)
Loadstones are a Girl's Best Friend: Lapidary Cures, Midwives, and Manuals of Popular Healing in Medieval and Early Modern England
Nichola E. Harris (SUNY-Ulster)
Early Medieval Crystal Amulets: Secular Instruments of Protection and Healing
Genervra Kornbluth (Kornbluth Photography)

Thursday 1:30 p.m. - Bernhard Brown & Gold Room
(Session 93) SSMH II: Sites
Organizers: Barbara S. Bowers (Ohio State Univ.) and Linda Migl Keyser (Univ. of Maryland)
Presider: Iona McCleery (Univ. of Leeds)

The Hospital Chapel at Tonnerre: Altars, Liturgy, and Relics
Lynn T. Courtenay (Univ. of Wisconsin - Whitewater and Madison)
Performative Thaumaturgy: The State of Research on Curative and Spiritual Interaction at Medieval Pilgrimage Shrines
Jim Bugslag (Univ. of Manitoba)
Life Insurance in the Medieval Period: Insights Offered by the Distribution of Pilgrims' Badges Recently Found in England

Michael Lewis (British Museum)

Thursday 3:30 p.m. - Bernhard Brown & Gold Room
(Session 140) SSMH III: Vernacular Texts
Organizers: Linda Migl Keyser (Univ. of Maryland) and Barbara S. Bowers (Ohio State Univ.)
Presider: Linda Migl Keyser (Univ. of Maryland)

Speaking Physic in Late Medieval England
Julie Orlemanski (Humanities Center, Harvard Univ.)
Middle Dutch Women's Secrets in a Courtly Context
Orlanda S.H. Lie (Univ. Utrecht)
Humans, Animals, and Veterinary Medicine in the Middle Ages
William H. York (Portland State University)

Thursday 7:30 p.m. - Bernhard Brown & Gold Room
(Session 170) SSMH IV: Texts, Plagues, and Religious Healing
Organizers: Linda Migl Keyser (Univ. of Maryland) and Barbara S. Bowers (Ohio State Univ.)
Presider: William H. York (Portland State University)

Plague in Bede's Prose Life of Cuthbert
Michelle Ziegler (St. Louis Univ.)
Religious and Medical Interpretations of Pestilence in the Late Middle Ages
Otto Gecser (Eotvos Lorand Univ./Central European Univ.)

Hope and Heat: Secular Medicine and Human Faith in Two Late Medieval Resurrection Miracles
Leigh Ann Craig (Virigina Commonwealth Univ.)

Also note that Medica's annual Business Meeting will convene on Thursday at 12:00 noon in the Bernhard Brown & Gold Room. We'll be discussing plans for future Medica sessions at Kalamazoo and Leeds, as well as plans for growing the society. All are welcome; bring a lunch and a friend. This is an open meeting for members and anyone interested in researching illness and healing in the Middle Ages.

The full program for the conference can be accessed at www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/index.html.

Come join the fun. See you in May,

Linda Migl Keyser
Medica, President

CFP Kalamazoo 2011

2010-08-11T10:02:00.041-04:00

Call for Papers: The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing: Sessions I-VI

International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 12-15 May 2011

An exciting suite of six sessions under the umbrella theme The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing will be presented at the 2011 Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo. The four societies sponsoring these sessions -- Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages, AVISTA: The Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML), and Societas Magica -- invite submissions that focus on sites, images, objects, and texts to explore the multivalent practices and meanings of healing in all its forms. A wide range of approaches is encouraged.

1. The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing I: Sites and Images

2. The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing II: Objects and Instruments (co-sponsors AVISTA and Medica)

Sessions I and II will focus on the art, architecture, and technologies of healing in the Middle Ages.

Contact: Barbara Bowers (AVISTA, bowers.41@buckeyemail.osu.edu)

3. The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing III: Texts

4. The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing IV: Texts (co-sponsors Medica and AVISTA)

Sessions III and IV will explore the different textual traditions in which medieval authors considered matters of health and healing. For example, papers might examine texts produced by and for scholastic physicians or laymen, questions about Latin and vernacular medical textual traditions, specific issues addressed in medical texts, such as theology, animal husbandry, etc., or the ways other literary genres draw upon or treat medical subjects.

Contact: Linda Migl Keyser (Medica, keyserl@georgetown.edu)

5. The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing V: Texts (co-sponsors HMML and Medica)

Session V will focus on texts as a partial purveyor of healing knowledge to go along with architectural setting, art image, and artifact. Papers will discuss specific manuscripts, collections of healing prayers, recipes, and explore the healing properties of manuscripts as objects.

Contact: Theresa Vann (HMML, tvann@csbsju.edu)

6. The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing VI: Texts: Re-Siting (co-sponsors Societas Magica and Medica)

Session VI expands textual traditions to include additional sites, such as the body as text.

Contact: Marla Segol (Societas Magica, msegol@skidmore.edu)

Please send proposals for papers (abstracts of no more than 300 words) and a completed Participant Information Form by e-mail to the contact person for that session by 15 September 2010.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact either Linda Keyser (keyserl@georgetown.edu) or Barbara Bowers (bowers.41@buckeyemail.osu.edu).

CFP Leeds 2011

2010-08-09T16:12:00.030-04:00

Medica and the Wellcome Trust are co-sponsoring a session on food and nutritional health at next year's Medieval Congress at Leeds. The Call for Papers follows:

International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 11-14 July 2011

The rich man's feast and the poor man's fare:

multidisciplinary approaches to food and nutritional health

in the Middle Ages

Sponsors: Wellcome Trust / Medica

In a recent article for the Journal of Medieval History Chris Woolgar drew attention to the rich multidisciplinary opportunities for research and collaboration afforded by the study of medieval food. Yet historical food and dietary health are still not very well established as an academic field and the subject seems ripe for exploration as part of the special thematic strand Poor … Rich at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds in 2011. We are looking for papers (for one or more sessions) that consider at least one of the following topics from a comparative socio-economic perspective (i.e. comparing rich and poor people’s nutrition and foodstuffs). We welcome international proposals from people working in museums, schools, historical re-enactment, food science and bioarchaeology, as well as from historians, art historians and literary specialists.

· Cooking medieval food for the modern public: problems and opportunities

· Teaching history through food

· Dietary health and regimen for rich and poor

· Eating and morality

· Feasting and fasting

· Food and charity

· Food production and food processing

· Bioarchaeological approaches

· Food and finance: medieval cost of eating

· Malnourishment, undernourishment, excess

· Social determinants of nutritional (ill-)health

The International Medieval Congress attracts over 1500 participants every year from more than forty countries, thus making it the largest conference of its kind in Europe. For more information, including registration, accommodation and bursaries, please go to http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2011_call.html. This call for papers is inspired by a new Wellcome Trust-funded engaging science award: You Are What You Ate: Food Lessons from the Past (grant no: 092293). Over the next three years the project will bring together historians, scientists, bioarchaeologists, re-enactors, museum officers and nutritionists in the exploration of diet and eating habits, past and present. There may be some project funds to cover registration costs at the congress for museum professionals and school teachers, and also re-enactors who are not in academic posts. Please make your status clear when sending in your proposal (appropriate proofs will be required).

Please send all proposals to: Iona McCleery, School of History, University of Leeds, LEEDS LS2 9JT, i.mccleery@leeds.ac.uk, phone: +44 (0)113 34 38543

Closing date for proposals: 9 September 2010 (submission 250 words, preferably by e-mail)

(submitted by Iona McCleery)

Medica at Leeds 2010

2010-07-01T15:11:00.007-04:00

For those of you attending the International Medieval Congress at Leeds this July, remember to add the Medica-sponsored session on "Healing Journeys" to your schedule. The papers in this session promise to offer three insightful perspectives on the quest to find healing through both geographical and preternatural journeys.

Tuesday, 13 July from 4:30 p.m. - 6:oo p.m.

(Session 827) Healing Journeys: Travels for Body and Soul in Medieval Culture

Organizer/Presider: Virginia Langum (Magdalene College, University of Cambridge)

Hilary C. Powell (University of Cambridge) "A Move to the Country?: Nature and Healing in Medieval England"
Michelle Garceau (College of Charleston, South Carolina) "Healing Practices and Journeys as Seen in Catalan Miracle Stories"
Chris Wilson (University of Exeter) "Corporeality and Visions of the Otherworld in the Long 13th Century"

Session abstract: The panel considers various aspects of travel for healing in the Middle Ages. The first two papers consider medical "pilgrimage" within different geographical and spatial contexts. Michelle Garceau investigates Catalan miracle stories for evidence of healing practices and their particular significance for gender studies. Hilary Powell discusses travel to healing locations in medieval England other than to the widely known saints' shrines. She delineates the status of these springs, trees, and stones within official and unofficial religious culture. In the final paper, Chris Wilson explores a less material form of travel – the otherworldly vision - and its physical and physiological consequences.

Notes from the President

2010-05-23T11:35:00.025-04:00

This Year at Kalamazoo . . .

Dear Members and Friends,

Medica made a strong showing at the 2010 Medieval Congress at Western Michigan. A fine crowd of attendees gathered to hear the four papers presented in this year's Medica session "Regimens of Health: Housebooks and Everyday Medicine" (see picture, left to right): Iona McCleery (Univ. of Leeds) "Preserving the Health of Body, State and Soul: Recipes and Regimen in the Commonplace Book of King Duarte of Portugal (1433-38)," Sarah Matthews (Univ. of Iowa) "Bloodletting in Monastic Customaries," Donna Trembinski (St. Francis Xavier Univ.) "Household Cures for Common Pain," and Efraim Lev (Univ. of Haifa) "Mediators between Theoretical and Practical Medieval Medical Knowledge: Notebooks in the Cairo Genizah and their Importance." An enthusiastic discussion with members of the audience followed.

After the session, we held Medica's annual business meeting. Highlights of our discussion follow.

Announcements and Updates:

* Of special note, at the 2011 Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo Medica will co-sponsor 5-6 sessions with AVISTA, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, and Societas Magica. The theme of the sessions is "The Scared and the Secular in Medieval Healing." The sessions will focus on papers addressing sites, images, objects, and texts to explore the multivalent practices and meanings of medieval healing. Keep an eye out for the upcoming CFPs as this promises to be a very special Congress! I'll keep you apprised of developments.

*In addition, we discussed sponsoring a session on Food, Nutrition, and Health at next year's Leeds Medieval Congress. The theme for the 2011 conference is "Rich . . . Poor." Details will follow.

*Also on the agenda, members discussed the open position of Vice President of Medica. Members are requested to start thinking of possible nominations -- yourself or a colleague. Nominations should be sent to the Chair of the Nominating Committee, Gerard NeCastro (necastro@maine.edu).

*In the meantime, William H. York, aka "Harry," the session organizer for "Housebooks and Everyday Medicine," has graciously agreed to step in as Interim Vice President. Thank you, Harry!

*A final gentle reminder to members. It's that time of year again. Membership for Medica runs from Kalamazoo to Kalamazoo. Annual dues is $20 for full-time professionals and $10 for students and retired, part-time, or unemployed faculty and researchers. Please make out checks to Medica and mail to our Treasurer and Secretary, Gerard NeCastro, Department of English, 9 O’Brien Avenue, University of Maine at Machias, Machias, ME 04654. For more information contact Gerard at necastro@maine.edu.

Thanks to all who made this yet another successful Medieval Congress for Medica. And for those traveling across the pond this summer, remember that Medica is sponsoring the session "Healing Journeys: Travels for Body and Soul in Medieval Culture" at the Leeds Medieval Congress, 12-15 July 2010.

Cheers,
Linda Migl Keyser

Kalamazoo 2010: Medical Themes

2010-05-11T10:53:00.017-04:00

The following is a brief list of papers with medical themes that will be presented at the Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo this year. This is a cursory list meant to assist those interested in hearing papers presenting current research in medieval medicine; I apologize for any papers overlooked.

And don't forget, Medica's session, #34 "Regimens of Health: Housebooks and Everyday Medicine" will be held at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, May 13. Following this session, our annual business meeting will be held at noon. Members and friends welcome. See posting below for details.

Papers on Medieval Medicine:

Thursday 10:00 a.m.

#19 Platinum Latin I: "Medical Imagery and the Rhetorical Psogos in Claudian’s Invectives," Cillian O'Hogan, Univ. of Toronto

Thursday 3:30 p.m.

#138 Globalizing the Middle Ages?: "Researching the Indian Contribution to Medieval Cooking and Medicine," Rachel Wexelbaum, St. Cloud State Univ.

Friday 1:30 p.m.

#277 Poison and Medicine in the Fourteenth Century:

"Defining Poison ca. 1300-1600," Frederick Gibbs, George Mason Univ.

"Poison and Medicine in the Western World before the Appearance of the Treatises about Poisons (End of the Thirteenth Century)," Franck Collard, Univ. de Paris X-Nanterre

"Poison, Medicine, and the Medieval Apothecary," Marie A . Kelleher (no affiliation noted in program)

#293 Religious Practices: "Medical Theory and the Christianization of Sleep in Late Antiquity," Leslie Dossey, Loyola Univ. Chicago

Friday 3:30 p.m.

#321 Science and Religion in the Fourteenth Century: "Swooning in Fourteenth-Century Medical and Religious Texts," Daniel Thomas Moore, Independent Scholar

#358 Early Medieval Europe I: "Christian and Pagan 'Temple Medicine': Incubation Cults in Late Antiquity," Amy Norgard, Univ. of Illinois-Urbana-Champagne

#360 Books, Readers, and Religions in the Middle Ages III: "Bodily Paynes: Middle English Devotional Literature and Late Medieval Medicine," Anna Dysert, McGill Univ.

Medica on Thursday at Kalamazoo 2010

2010-02-02T11:21:00.015-05:00

Dear Friends and Members,

As you prepare for your trip to Kalamazoo this May, keep an eye on the schedule for Thursday, May 13th. At 10:00 a.m., please come to Room 1280 in the Schneider Building to hear speakers present a fascinating look at various perspectives of everyday medicine at the Medica-sponsored session Regimens of Health: Housebooks and Everyday Medicine. After which, walk down the hill to Valley III, Room 304 to attend Medica's Annual Business Meeting at noon. We'll be discussing plans for future Medica sessions at Kalamazoo and Leeds, as well as plans for growing the society. Bring a lunch and a friend. All are welcome. See details below.

Thursday 10:00 a.m., Room 1280 Schneider
(Session 34) Regimens of Health: Housebooks and Everyday Medicine

Presider: William H. York (Portland State University)

Efraim Lev (University of Haifa), “Mediators between Theoretical and Practical Medieval Medical Knowledge: Notebooks in the Cairo Genizah and their Importance”
Donna Trembinski (St. Francis Xavier University), “Household Cures for Common Pain”
Sarah Matthews (University of Iowa), “Bloodletting in Monastic Customaries”
Iona McCleery (University of Leeds), “Preserving the Health of Body, State and Soul: Recipes and Regimen in the Commonplace Book of King Duarte of Portugal (1433-38)”

Thursday 12:00 noon: Room 304 Valley IIII
Medica Business Meeting

Open meeting for members and anyone interested in researching illness and healing in the Middle Ages.

See you in May,

Linda Migl Keyser
Medica, President

Medica at Leeds 2010

2010-01-09T11:28:00.006-05:00

At the 17th International Medieval Congress, Leeds (July 12-15, 2010 at Leeds University, Leeds, England), Medica will sponsor the following session:

Session 827: Healing Journeys: Travels for Body and Soul in Medieval Culture

Time: Tuesday, 13 July - 4:30-6:00 p.m.

Abstract: The panel considers various aspects of travel for healing in the Middle Ages. The first two papers consider medical 'pilgrimage' within different geographical and spatial contexts. Michelle Garceau Catalan investigates Catalan miracle stories for evidence of healing practices and their particular significance for gender studies. Hilary Powell discusses travel to healing locations in medieval England other than to the widely known saints' shrines. She delineates the status of these springs, trees, and stones within official and unofficial religious culture. In the final paper, Chris Wilson explores a less material form of travel – the otherworldly vision - and its physical and physiological consequences.

Organizer and Presider: Virginia Langum (Magdalene College, University of Cambridge)

Hilary C. Powell (University of Cambridge), "A Move to the Country?: Nature and Healing in Medieval England"
Michelle Garceau (College of Charleston, South Carolina), "Healing Practices and Journeys as Seen in Catalan Miracle Stories"
Chris Wilson (University of Exeter), "Corporeality and Visions of the Otherworld in the Long 13th Century"

Medica at Kalamazoo 2010

2009-10-12T12:06:00.005-04:00

At the 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 13-16, 2010 at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan), Medica will sponsor the following session:

Regimens of Health: Housebooks and Everyday Medicine

Organizer and Presider: William H. York (Portland State University)

Efraim Lev (University of Haifa), “Mediators between Theoretical and Practical Medieval Medical Knowledge: Notebooks in the Cairo Genizah and their Importance”
Donna Trembinski (St. Francis Xavier University), “Household Cures for Common Pain”
Sarah Matthews (University of Iowa), “Bloodletting in Monastic Customaries”
Iona McCleery (University of Leeds), “Preserving the Health of Body, State and Soul: Recipes and Regimen in the Commonplace Book of King Duarte of Portugal (1433-38)”

Spotlight on Research

2009-08-29T11:17:00.006-04:00

Passing on information concerning two searchable databases:

Electronic Thorndike-Kibre (eTK) - an expanded and updated digital version of Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin (TK) (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy, 1963) with two supplements, has been produced with the permission of the copyright holder, Medieval Academy of America. While TK consolidates all manuscript information for a text into a single entry, eTK divides entries from the book into 33,000 records, each for a manuscript witness to a text.
Electronic Voigts-Kurtz (eVK2) - an expanded and revised version of Linda Ehrsam Voigts and Patricia Deery Kurtz, Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000). The second edition of the CD provides more than 10,000 records for the earliest technical and learned writings in English.

The digital records in both databases are organized in multiple searchable fields and allow searching of incipit words and word strings and searching by manuscript, library, author, title, subject, translator, date, and bibliography.

Both tools are now freely available via a link from the website of the Medieval Academy of America (see the link "Science and Medicine Databases at UMKC”). The Academy homepage also contains a slide show of images from Brunschwig's De arte distillandi (Strassburg, 1512).

2010 Medica Graduate Student Award

2009-08-24T16:13:00.022-04:00

In keeping with the Society’s overarching mission to encourage research on medicine and healing in the Middle Ages, Medica’s Graduate Student Award provides a stipend of $250 to honor a graduate student presenting an outstanding paper at a Medica-sponsored conference session.

The Society’s sessions encourage research from a broad spectrum of disciplines, such as history of medicine, art history, literary studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and religious studies.

Details for each year’s eligible conference sessions, topics, and deadlines are posted as CFPs on Medica’s blog. CFP Deadlines for 2010 Medica-Sponsored Sessions are noted in the post below.

Application Procedures and Deadline

Complete applications are due December 1, 2009 [receipt deadline]. To be eligible for the award, an applicant must have a paper accepted by a Medica-sponsored conference session and be a student member of Medica (see http://www.umm.maine.edu/medica/members.html).

Applicants must submit the following:

a one-page abstract of the paper to be presented at a Medica-sponsored session
a complete copy of the paper to be presented, which may not exceed 10 pages, double-spaced (12 pt. font)
a one-page curriculum vitae, including current employment status
one letter of reference (dissertation writers must have a letter from their supervisor).

Award decisions will be based on the excellence of the submitted conference abstract and paper as judged by Medica’s Graduate Student Award Committee. Winners will be notified by e-mail no later than January 30, 2010.

For more information, address inquiries to Linda Migl Keyser at keyserl@georgetown.edu. Please send application materials to Dr. Keyser via e-mail at keyserl@georgetown.edu, or mail application materials to: Linda Migl Keyser, Ph.D., President; Medica; 1690 N. 21st St., #2; Arlington, VA 22209 USA.

Medica CFPs: 2010

2009-07-14T12:37:00.029-04:00

Kalamazoo 2010

Medica, the Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages, will sponsor the following paper session at the 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 13-16, 2010 at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan):

"Regimens of Health: Housebooks and Everyday Medicine in the Middle Ages."

The session will focus on household remedies and medical treatments that were popularly available, or described in sources such as hausbuchs, recipe collections, or writings on the regimen of health.

If you are interested in participating, or if you have any questions about the session, please contact Harry York (why@pdx.edu). Proposals for papers should include your name, the title of your paper, and a 250-300 word abstract as well as the Congress's Participant Information Form (see http://www.wmich.edu/~medinst/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF).

Deadline: September 15, 2009

William H. York, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies - Humanities

University Honors Program, Portland State University

(submitted by Harry York)

Leeds 2010

Medica, the Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages, invites submissions for a panel entitled:

Healing Journeys: Travelling for Body and Soul in Medieval Culture

to be hosted at the Leeds International Medieval Congress, 12-15 July 2010.

We encourage a broad interpretation of the theme from a variety of disciplines, such as history of medicine, literary studies, material culture, and religious history.

Papers may consider:

Portable Healing
Physiology and the Ages of Man
Bodily and Spiritual Journeys for Healing
Representations of the Body and Medical Healing in Otherworldly Journeys
Medical Pilgrims and their Detractors

Please send proposals for twenty minutes papers (title and abstract of 250-500 words) by email to Virginia Langum vel23@cam.ac.uk by 1 September 2009.

For more information on the Leeds conference, see http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2010_call.html

(submitted by Virginia Langum)

Notes from the President

2009-06-11T10:31:00.018-04:00

This year at Kalamazoo . . .

Dear Members and Friends,

I’m happy to report another successful conference as Medica continues its tradition of sponsoring sessions at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, held at Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo. Our session “Medicine as Metaphor” was well attended, and both speakers' presentations were enthusiastically received and prompted lively responses from the audience.

Of special note, this year we officially initiated our first annual Medica Graduate Student Award which includes a stipend of $250. I was delighted to begin our session by introducing Virginia Langum, who received the 2009 award for her paper The Surgeon as Confessor and Priest. Virginia is in the final year of a Ph.D. in English at Magdalene College, Cambridge University. Her research examines intersections between medicine, religion and literature.

The abstract for Virginia’s winning paper as well as for the session’s other fine paper, Julia Schlozman’s Christ among the Surgeons: Piety and Surgical Practice in a Fourteenth-Century Manuscript, are recorded below. See the Medica website for more information about the award.

As usual, we also held our society’s annual business meeting at the congress. The meeting was well attended, and in addition to finalizing proposals for Medica sessions at next year’s 45th congress, we also discussed plans to co-sponosor with AVISTA (The Association Villard de Honnecourt for Interdisciplinary Study of Medieval Technology, Science and Art) a day of sessions on Secular and Sacred Sites of Healing at the 46^th International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo in 2011. More news to come.

Announcements and Updates:

Gentle reminder to all members -- if you haven’t done so already, it’s time to pay your 2009 membership dues. Annual dues for Medica is $20 for full-time professionals and $10 for retired faculty, part-time faculty, and students. Make out checks to Medica and mail to our Treasurer and Secretary, Gerard NeCastro, Department of English, 9 O’Brien Avenue, University of Maine at Machias, Machias, ME 04654. For more information contact Gerard at necastro@maine.edu.

Announcement of our accepted sessions at the 45^th International Medieval Congress in 2010 will be made in July 2009.

Please check out the Medica website for more information on the 2010 Graduate Student Award and be sure to encourage talented graduate students pursuing research on medieval medicine to apply.

Lastly, let me welcome all Medica members and friends to our society’s newly initiated Medica blog. Though still in its nascent form, I hope that as Medica grows and develops, it will provide a useful venue of communication for our members and friends.

Cheers,

Linda Migl Keyser

Medicine as Metaphor

2009-06-09T15:05:00.009-04:00

Overview and Abstracts (44^th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo, May 2009)

The representation of the surgeon in medieval manuscripts underscores the intersection of secular and sacred discourse in the material culture of the Middle Ages. The papers in this session adopt an interdisciplinary approach to examine the significance and symbolism raised by both image and text in the medical and theological discourse of late medieval surgical texts. Both papers are especially attentive to the means by which the texts delineate a dependent relationship between the surgeon's ethical character and professional status.

Papers

The Surgeon as Confessor and Priest

Virginia Langum, Magdalene College, Cambridge
2009 Medica Graduate Student Award Recipient

The paper considers similarities in the emergent professional discourses of pastoral care and surgery in the later Middle Ages. Surgical prologues suggest the pastoral tradition in a variety of ways. Some make direct reference to confessional practice, for example, advising the surgeon to be ‘priuy as a confessour’. Other prologues provide something like an exemplary compendium or confessional dialogue. However, beyond these superficial similarities, this paper argues that both surgical and pastoral ethics are organized around discretion. An ancient, idea that incorporates both physical and spiritual health, discretion was also quality demanded of priests in the reforms and writings related to the Fourth Lateran Council.

While pastoral literature was systematizing the professional obligations and behaviours of priests, and books of surgery were doing the same for surgeons. Pastoral discretion provides medical ethics with a concept by which to integrate traditional medical ideas, such as the importance of moderation, as well as the association of the practitioner’s behaviour with professional reputation, to newer concerns about balancing experiential knowledge with medical theory.

The new emphasis on the doctor and confessor’s judgment in deciding treatment drew attention to their capacity for judgment. The observer is also the observed. Thus, the new professional writing for priests and doctors emphasizes the practitioner’s own body. Writing about the practice of medical and pastoral care stressed the need for doctors and confessors to gain the patient or penitent’s trust through their own behaviour. This behaviour is often measured through their ‘discrete’ speech. Speech is the medium by which the doctor and the priest are judged, and the means through which they validate themselves and their professions. A material and metaphorical physiology underlines this speech and judgment.

Medical writers extend this same need for self-governance to their translations. Based on their own experiential knowledge gained from practice, they use their discretion to ‘trim the fat’ of excess verbiage, as well as to separate incorrect and out-dated learning. In this sense, surgical writers wield something akin to the pastoral ‘sword of discretion’, which separates the unfaithful from the faithful when preaching and teaching fail. However, medical writers also allow for the production and inclusion of new knowledge. Readers are invited into the process of amending texts by using their own discretion. -- vel23@cam.ac.uk

Christ among the Surgeons: Piety and Surgical Practice in a Fourteenth-Century Manuscript

Julia E. Schlozman, Harvard University

Although famous for the quality and extent of its illumination, the prefatory cycle to British Library MS Sloane 1977 has long remained elusive. Sixteen full folia of miniatures precede the text of Roger Frugardi’s Chirurgia, incorporating scenes of surgeries described in the text with a richly illuminated Christological cycle unfolding across the top of each page. Such an unprecedented conflation of religious and medical imagery accompanies the extended textual comparison at the beginning of the Chirurgia comparing God as sovereign physician to his earthly counterparts. Through a loose system of compositional parallels and repeated gestures, the images complicate a familiar, if lengthy, recapitulation of the christus medicus theme.

The significance of the cycle shifts constantly, tailoring its message to fit particular episodes from the Christ story as well as the corresponding surgeries. At various points, the surgeon is shown pulling off feats as diverse as head surgeries and anesthesia. At others, he is compared to Judas and those who cared for Christ after his death, who are presented as exemplars of greed and selflessness that the surgeon should avoid and emulate, respective. On an opening late in the cycle, Joseph of Arimathea is shown asking Pilate for Christ's body, preparing burial cloths, and anointing Christ’s chest, while the surgeon goes about his work in compositionally similar scenes below. Christ himself is less often healer than healed; none of Christ's healing miracles is shown, and everywhere on the page, healing is effected through human skill alone. During the Passion, Christ shares the pain of the patients. On the page showing the Crucifixion, for example, a patient with arrows lodged in his chest appeals to a surgeon diagonally below the scene in which Christ suffers the wound from the lance. Taken together, the cycle adds up to a complex statement of what it meant to be a late medieval surgeon. He understood the body and knew how to cure a variety of maladies, took care never to be greedy, and because the patients suffered as Christ had, treated the patient with the same compassion that Christ’s companions had shown him. These goals were easy to achieve if he had mastered the content of the Chirurgia and had internalized the message of the pictorial cycle through repeated, reflective viewing. -- julia.schlozman@gmail.com

Titles recorded above represent adjustments made at the time of presentation. Information about the International Medieval Congress appears at: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/. Information about our sessions in previous Congresses appears on Medica’s website: Events.

The Medica Listserv

2009-05-11T15:41:00.001-04:00

The Medica Listserve is up and running. Whether you are a new member or old, if you want to be added to the listserve, please follow the instructions below. If all else fails, simply email Gerard NeCastro at necastro@maine.edu.

Medica’s Listserve is operated via the University of Maine at Machias.

To subscribe to Medica, please send a message to listserv@lists.maine.edu. The message you send should read “subscribe medica firstname lastname”. Of course, do not include the quotation marks, and you should include your own first and last names. There is no need to include anything in the subject heading.

Within 48 hours you will receive a confirmation that you have been added to the list, and you will be free to communicate with others in the group.

Important: When writing to other members on the list, please be sure to mail your messages to medica@lists.maine.edu. To send a message to the list owner (if you need to change anything about your subscription), please send a message to listserv@lists.maine.edu.