The birth of the hospital in the Byzantine Empire / Timothy S. Miller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miller, Timothy S.

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hospitals, Medieval--Byzantine Empire.

Hospitals, Medieval.

Charities--Byzantine Empire.

Charities.

Public welfare--Byzantine Empire.

Public welfare.

Byzantine Empire--History.

Byzantine Empire.

History.

Physical Description:

xxxv, 288 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

Johns Hopkins paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, [1997]

Summary:

Medical historians have traditionally claimed that modern hospitals emerged during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Premodern hospitals, according to many scholars, existed mainly as refuges for the desperately poor and sick, providing patients with little or no medical care. Challenging this view in a compelling survey of hospitals in the East Roman Empire, Timothy Miller traces the birth and development of Byzantine "xenones," or hospitals, from their emergence in the fourth century to their decline in the fifteenth century, just prior to the Turkish conquest of Constantinople. These sophisticated medical facilities, he concludes, are the true ancestors of modern hospitals. In a new introduction to this paperback edition, Miller describes the growing scholarship on this subject in recent years.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [218]-277) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0801856574

OCLC:

41048979