Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 22 August 2022

Making medieval medicine accessible


Funded by the Wellcome Foundation Cambridge Universirty Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and a number of the historic Cambridge colleges are digitising their collection of medieval medical manuscripts. This will make them more accessible to researchers and ultimately the wider scholarly and general public.

Something like 8000 potions and treatments are given in about 180 manuscripts, so there is a rich collection on offer for future perusal.

Wierd and wonderful the concoctions may be, but they also  display at very least an attempt to provide relief to a wide range of conditions.

The project is reported upon by Cambridge University Libraries in an illustrated post with instances of various examples of medieval potions, and which can be seen at Do not try this at home: Medieval medicine under the spotlight in major new project



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