MEDIÆVAL MEDS
As part of a project to share its resources online, Cambridge University Library has posted manuscripts containing a selection of curious mediæval cures on its website. These include two cures for gout, one involving baking an owl and then grinding it into a powder and the other stuffing a puppy with snails and sage royal, roasting it and making a salve from the rendered fat. A recipe for dealing with cataracts, described as a “web in the eye” involves taking the gall bladder of a hare and some honey, mixing them together and then applying it to the eye with a feather over the course of three nights. The university intends to digitise, catalogue and conserve more thanmore than 8,000 unedited medical recipes, mostly from the 14th and 15th centuries, although the oldest is 1,000 years old. Project leader James Freeman said: “For all their complexities, mediæval medical recipes are very relatable to modern readers. Many address ailments that we still struggle with today: headaches, toothache, diarrhoea, coughs, aching limbs. They show mediæval people trying to manage their health with the knowledge that was available to them at the time – just as we do.”
