Doctoring the Black Death

Medieval Europe's Medical Response to Plague

John Aberth

The Black Death of the late Middle Ages is often described as the greatest natural disaster in the history of humankind. More than fifty million people, half of Europe’s population, died during the first outbreak alone from 1347 to 1353. Plague then returned fifteen more times through to the end of the medieval period in 1500, posing the greatest challenge to physicians ever recorded in the history of the medical profession.

This engrossing book provides the only comprehensive history of the medical response to the Black Death over time. Leading historian John Aberth has translated many unknown plague treatises from nine different languages that vividly illustrate the human dimensions of the horrific scourge. He includes doctors’ remarkable personal anecdotes, showing how their battles to combat the disease (which often afflicted them personally) and the scale and scope of the plague led many to question ancient authorities. Dispelling many myths and misconceptions about medicine during the Middle Ages, Aberth shows that plague doctors formulated a unique and far-reaching response as they began to treat plague as a poison, a conception that had far-reaching implications, both in terms of medical treatment and social and cultural responses to the disease in society as a whole.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 498 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7425-5723-9 • Hardback • September 2021 • $39.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-4422-2391-2 • eBook • September 2021 • $37.00 • (£28.00)

Subjects: History / Europe / Medieval, Medical / History

Doctoring the Black Death

Medieval Europe's Medical Response to Plague

Hardback

eBook

Summary

The Black Death of the late Middle Ages is often described as the greatest natural disaster in the history of humankind. More than fifty million people, half of Europe’s population, died during the first outbreak alone from 1347 to 1353. Plague then returned fifteen more times through to the end of the medieval period in 1500, posing the greatest challenge to physicians ever recorded in the history of the medical profession.

This engrossing book provides the only comprehensive history of the medical response to the Black Death over time. Leading historian John Aberth has translated many unknown plague treatises from nine different languages that vividly illustrate the human dimensions of the horrific scourge. He includes doctors’ remarkable personal anecdotes, showing how their battles to combat the disease (which often afflicted them personally) and the scale and scope of the plague led many to question ancient authorities. Dispelling many myths and misconceptions about medicine during the Middle Ages, Aberth shows that plague doctors formulated a unique and far-reaching response as they began to treat plague as a poison, a conception that had far-reaching implications, both in terms of medical treatment and social and cultural responses to the disease in society as a whole.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 498 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7425-5723-9 • Hardback • September 2021 • $39.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-4422-2391-2 • eBook • September 2021 • $37.00 • (£28.00)

Subjects: History / Europe / Medieval, Medical / History

Author

John Aberth holds a PhD in medieval history from the University of Cambridge and is the author of numerous books on disease and the Middle Ages, including Plagues in World History. He lives in Roxbury, Vermont.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Challenge of Interpreting Plague Treatises
The Poison Thesis: A New Paradigm for Plague Medicine?
1 Causes
Origins of the Poison Thesis
The Poison Orthodoxy
The Artificial Poison Conspiracy
Universal and Remote Causes
Particular and Near Causes
Contagion
Conclusion
2 Signs
Environmental Signs
Bodily Symptoms—Fever
Bodily Symptoms—Bubonic Plague
Bodily Symptoms—Pneumonic Plague
Bodily Symptoms—Septicemic Plague
Predispositions to Plague
Conclusion
3 Prevention
The Non-Naturals
Preventative Medicines
Prevention as a Public Good
Prevention by Social Class
Flight
Conclusion
4 Cure
Principles of the Plague Cure
Surgical Procedures
Drug Therapies
Doctors Who Treated Themselves
Bedside Manner
Religious Responses
Magical Healing
Audience and Reputation of Plague Doctors
Conclusion
Epilogue: Plague’s Verdict on Medieval Medicine
Appendix: Table Sources
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

This is an important and timely book. Drawing on 240 plague treatises, John Aberth offers an illuminating look at how medieval doctors made use of their firsthand observations of the Black Death. Full of new insights about how medieval doctors understood the causes of and treated the plague, this book also challenges critical commonplaces that see medieval approaches to the plague as entirely indebted to traditional knowledge and authorities. Instead, the study reveals the extent to which many medieval doctors also derived their knowledge of the plague from empirically based observations. Both deeply erudite and engaging, Doctoring the Black Death should be mandatory reading for all those interested in medical history, social responses to pandemics, and medieval culture.

— Shannon Gayk, Indiana University Bloomington

In this lucid and engaging book, John Aberth thoroughly describes and contextualizes how physicians understood and responded to the Black Death. Aberth’s copious excerpts from a wide variety of plague treatises vividly illustrate the complexity and resilience of medieval medicine in the face of an unprecedented public health crisis.

— Frederick Gibbs, The University of New Mexico

A welcome reassessment of Europe’s medical responses to the dreadful ‘emerging disease’ of the late Middle Ages: plague. Drawing on over 200 medical treatises from across Europe, including Muslim Spain and the writings of Jewish physicians, John Aberth examines how medical practitioners (some of whom died carrying out their duties) addressed questions of the pandemic’s cause and formulated protocols for describing symptoms, preventative measures, and therapies. Engagingly written, Aberth’s invaluable book illuminates the early years of the Second Plague Pandemic.

— Monica H. Green, fellow of the Medieval Academy of America

Doctoring the Black Death

Medieval Europe's Medical Response to Plague

John Aberth

Doctoring the Black Death

Medieval Europe's Medical Response to Plague

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