New Approaches to Disease, Disability and Medicine in Medieval Europe

The majority of papers in this volume were originally presented at the eighth annual ‘Disease, Disability, and Medicine in Medieval Europe’ conference. The conference focused on infections, chronic illness, and the impact of infectious diseases on medieval society, including infection as a disability in the case of visible conditions, such as infected wounds, leprosy, syphilis, and tuberculosis. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this conference emphasised the importance of collaborative projects, novel avenues of research for treating infectious disease, and the value of considering medieval questions from the perspective of multiple disciplines. This volume aims to carry forward this interdisciplinary synergy by bringing together contributors from a variety of disciplines and from a diverse range of international institutions. Of note is the academic stage of the contributors in this volume. All the contributors were PhD candidates at the time of the conference, and the majority have completed or are in the final stages of completing their programmes at the time of this publication. The originality and calibre of research presented by these early career researchers demonstrates the promising future of the field, as well as the continued relevance of medieval studies for a wide range of disciplines and topics. Contributions by Stefanie Künzel, Marit Ronen, Cathrin Hähn, Rachel Welsh, Ninon Dubourg, Clara Jáuregui, Lucy Barnhouse, Cecilia Collins, Erin Connelly, and Christoph Wieselhuber.

Table of Contents

Foreword - Christina Lee

Introduction - Erin Connelly and Stefanie Künzel

Chapter 1 - Þu miht wiþ þam laþan ðe geond lond færð: Conceptualisations of Disease in Anglo-Saxon Charms - Stefanie Künzel

Chapter 2 - A Still Sound Mind: Personal Agency of Impaired People in Anglo-Saxon Care and Cure Narratives - Marit Ronen

Chapter 3 - Mobility Limitations and Assistive Aids in the Merovingian Burial Record - Cathrin Hähn

Chapter 4 - Tearing the Face in Grief and Rape: Cheek Rending in Medieval Iberia, c. 1000–1300 - Rachel Welsh

Chapter 5 - Clerical Leprosy and the Ecclesiastical Office: Dis/Ability and Canon Law - Ninon Dubourg

Chapter 6 - Inside the Leprosarium: Illness in the Daily Life of 14th Century Barcelona - Clara Jáuregui

Chapter 7 - Languages of Experience: Translating Medicine in MS Laud Misc 237 - Lucy Barnhouse

Chapter 8 - Heillög Bein, Brotin Bein: Manifestations of Disease in Medieval Iceland - Cecilia Collins

Chapter 9 - A Case Study of Plantago in the Treatment of Infected Wounds in the Middle English Translation of Bernard of Gordon’s Lilium medicinae - Erin Connelly

Chapter 10 - Miserum spectaculum, horrendus fetor, aspectus horrendus: “Syphilis” in Strasbourg at the Turn of the 16th Century - Christoph Wieselhuber