Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden - by Peter Dendle & Alain Touwaide (Paperback)

About the Book

Fresh examinations of the role of medicinal plants in medieval thought and practice and how they contributed to broader ideas concerning the body, religion and identity.

Book Synopsis

Fresh examinations of the role of medicinal plants in medieval thought and practice and how they contributed to broader ideas concerning the body, religion and identity.

The important and ever-shifting role of medicinal plants in medieval science, art, culture, and thought, both in the Latin Western medical tradition and in Byzantine and medieval Arabic medicine, is the focus of this new collection. Following a general introduction and a background chapter on Late Antique and medieval theories of wellness and therapy, in-depth essays treat such wide-ranging topics as medicine and astrology, charms and magical remedies, herbal glossaries, illuminated medical manuscripts, women's reproductive medicine, dietary cooking, gardens in social and political context, and recreated medieval gardens. They make a significant contribution to our understanding ofthe place of medicinal plants in medieval thought and practice, and thus lead to a greater appreciation of how medieval theories and therapies from diverse places developed in continuously evolving and cross-pollinating strands, and, in turn, how they contributed to broader ideas concerning the body, religion, identity, and the human relationship with the natural world.

Contributors: MARIA AMALIA D'ARONCO, PETER DENDLE, EXPIRACION GARCIA SANCHEZ, PETER MURRAY JONES, GEORGE R. KEISER, DEIRDRE LARKIN, MARIJANE OSBORN, PHILIP G. RUSCHE, TERENCE SCULLY, ALAIN TOUWAIDE, LINDA EHRSAM VOIGTS

Review Quotes

[A] fascinating collection. [...] On many different levels it opens up a new world of the association of plants to medicine.-- "BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE on-line review"

A welcome contribution to the growing body of scholarship on early medical, scientific and other utilitarian texts. [...] The topic is both timely and important for the field of Medieval Studies which has, in recent decades, witnessed a renewed interest in utilitarian prose as a relatively untapped source of insight into the period.-- "ENGLISH STUDIES"

This collection is [...] extremely welcome, not only in that it fills what might be a rather obvious gap in the literature, but also for bringing to the task some of the biggest names in medieval medicine. I recommend the collection as a whole not only to medievalists (both early and late), but to anyone who may believe that the classical legacy was neglected or unknown until humanists rediscovered it, and to all those interested in plant-based medicine.-- "MEDICAL HISTORY"

This fascinating history shows how theories of health and disease evolved in the interplay of Western, Byzantine, and Arabic medicines and the relationship with the natural world.-- "AMERICAN HERB ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY"