For a long time, medieval medicine has been dismissed as irrelevant. This time period is popularly referred to as the “Dark Ages,” which erroneously suggests that it was unenlightened by science or ...

Several years ago, I spent a rainy afternoon at the Wellcome Library in London examining a 15th-century birthing girdle. The eagle-eyed curator watched my every move, making sure I didn’t touch the ...

Medieval remedies are attracting growing interest for their ingenuity. Far from clichés, these ancient practices reveal a methodical approach to health. Medieval manuscripts unveil surprisingly modern ...

Medicine was an important part of medieval Islamic life; both rich and poor people were interested in health and diseases. Islamic doctors and a number of scholars wrote profusely on health and ...

Nothing calls to mind nonsensical treatments and bizarre religious healing rituals as easily as the notion of Dark Age medicine. The “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Medieval Barber Theodoric of York” ...

Meg Leja does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...

This fall, six Princeton undergraduate students in the course “Arts of the Medieval Book” are exploring the technology and function of books through a historical perspective. Working firsthand with ...

The Medieval Period, commonly known as The Middle Ages spanned 1,000 years, from the 5th to the 15th century (476 AD to 1453 AD). It is the period in European history which started at the end of ...

Already a member? Sign in here. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, please join us as a member. Sebastian Jäger, “Wound Man” ...

The material on the covers of books from a French abbey was too hairy to have come from calves or other local mammals. Researchers identified its more distant origin. By Jack Tamisiea Medieval scribes ...

A scientific analysis of dozens of 12th- and 13th-century books found in European monasteries reveals they were bound in sealskins procured by Norse traders from as far away as Greenland. When you ...