1st Edition

Universities, Medicine and Science in the Medieval West

By Vern L. Bullough Copyright 2004
    314 Pages
    by Routledge

    The papers collected here first of all reflect Vern Bullough's concern to examine how knowledge was transmitted from one generation to the next and the impact this had on new developments in medicine and science. Universities, Medicine and Science in the Medieval West brings together the author's pioneering studies on the medical universities of the medieval Latin world, their foundation and their influence on scientific thought, and those on the professionalization of medicine, respectively the focus of the first and second sections in the volume, along with three previously unpublished essays. The third part looks at developments in medical practice outside the university, and at topics such as nursing and medical care, medieval views of women, and female longevity and diet; it also includes the author's much-cited study on the age of menarche.

    Contents: Introduction; Medical Study and the Development of Five Medical Universities: The study of medicine and the medieval university; The development of the medical university at Montpellier to the end of the 14th century; The medieval medical university at Paris; Medieval Bologna and the development of medical education; Medical study at mediaeval Oxford; The mediaeval medical school at Cambridge. Medicine and Science in the Universities: Science vs. humanities: a conflict in the 15th century Italian universities?; Science and the university in the 15th century; The emergence of medicine as a profession; Achievement, professionalization, and the university; Medieval medicine and the search for status; Population and the study and practice of medieval medicine. Medical Developments Outside the University and the Medieval Medical Tradition: Training of non university-educated medical practitioners in the later middle ages; The development of the medical guilds at Paris; Medieval nursing; A note on medical care in medieval English hospitals; Female longevity and diet in the middle ages (with Cameron Campbell); Medieval medical and scientific views of women; Sexology and the medievalist; Age at menarche: a misunderstanding; The term 'doctor'; A 15th-century prescription; Duke Humphrey and his medical collections; The teaching of surgery at the University of Montpellier in the 13th century; Medical practice in the middle ages, or who treated whom; Index.

    Biography

    Vern L. Bullough is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA, and State University of New York, USA.

    ’This book is well referenced and heavily annotated for the researcher. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in medicine and the medieval period.’ Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae