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Leprosy in medieval England / Carole Rawcliffe.

Van Pelt Library RC154.3 .R39 2006
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Rawcliffe, Carole, 1946-
Contributor:
Albert C. Baugh Book Fund.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Leprosy--England--History--To 1500.
Leprosy.
Leprosy--Treatment--England--History--To 1500.
Leprosy--Patients--England--Social conditions.
Medicine, Medieval--Social aspects--England.
Medicine, Medieval.
Leprosy--history.
Leprosy--epidemiology.
Leper Colonies--history.
Social Conditions.
Religion and Medicine.
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice.
History, Medieval.
Social aspects.
Leprosy--Patients.
Social conditions.
Leprosy--Treatment.
History.
England--epidemiology.
England.
Medical Subjects:
Leprosy--history.
Leprosy--epidemiology.
Leper Colonies--history.
Social Conditions.
Religion and Medicine.
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice.
History, Medieval.
England--epidemiology.
Physical Description:
xii, 421 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Place of Publication:
Woodbridge, UK ; Rochester, NY : Boydell Press, 2006.
Summary:
"Set firmly in the medical, religious and cultural milieu of the European middle ages, this hook is the first serious academic study of a disease surrounded by misconceptions and prejudices." "Even specialists will be surprised to learn that most stereotypical ideas about the segregation of medieval lepers originated in the nineteenth century; that leprosy excited a vast range of responses, from admiration to revulsion; that in the later middle ages it was diagnosed readily even by laity; that a wide range of treatment was available; that medieval leper hospitals were no more austere than the monasteries on which they were modelled; and that the decline of leprosy was not monocausal but implied a complex web of factors - medical, environmental, social and legal."--Jacket.
Contents:
List of illustration s
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Creating the medieval leper : some myths and misunderstandings
'This global disaster' : the biomedical model
'Outside the camp' " the missionary model
'Leporises of sin' : the literary model
Consolidating the myth
2. The body and the soul : ideas about causation
The wages of sin
The gift of paradise
A question of balance
From sāraʻath to elephanica
'malencolik mete' and 'fleschelie lust'
'A contagiouse sekenesse and infectynge'
Murky and malicious planets
3. The sick and the healthy : reactions to suffering
'Bothe fowlle and fayer' : saints and sinners
'For loue of her lowe hertis' : humility, penitence and confession
'Thou art a foule lepre' : conflicting responses
From infirmitas to caritas : the uses of leprosy.
4. Priests and physicians : the business of diagnosis
Applying science : the spread of information
Monks and miracles : the shrine
Physicians of the soul : the confessional
Practitioners at work : the judicium
Popular perceptions : juries and presentments
5. Medicine and surgery : the battle against disease
Diet and medication
Baths
Surgical procedures
Accidents of the soul
Blood and alchemy
6. A disease apart? : the impact of segregation
Canon law
The common law
The fear of miasma and contagion
The wild and the tame
Finding a hospital place
7. Life in the medieval leper house
Degrees of separation
Care of the body
Care of the soul
Conclusion
Bibliography
General index
Index of leper houses, hospitals and almshouses.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 359-395) and indexes.
Local Notes:
Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Albert C. Baugh Book Fund.
ISBN:
9781843834540
1843834545
9781843832737
1843832739
OCLC:
70765638

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