Anglo-Norman Medicine 1: Roger Frugard's Chirurgia; The Practica brevis of Platearius

These editions of Anglo-Norman medical treatises, published here for the first time, are translations of influential Latin sources, some of which have themselves never been edited. They reveal the state of medical knowledge in the thirteenth century, the diffusion of such knowledge in England, and the emergence of vernacular medicine as a major historical phenomenon. They also demonstrate the existence of a wide-ranging medical terminology in the vernacular, centuries before the data recorded in the standard dictionaries. Detailed notes show how the translations compare with the Latin originals. Comprehensive glossaries provide a full picture of the medical lexis in Anglo-Norman and facilitate access to these highly significant treatises, some of them from the celebrated medical school of Salerno. Thus the material is of considerable import and represents a rare contribution to the publication of medieval medical texts which are still little known. The second volume will contain a detailed introduction as well as a series of smaller treatises.
TONY HUNT is a Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford, and author of several other books from Boydell and Brewer.