Medieval Medicine: The Four Humours

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming and we are onto Medieval Medicine; with today giving a brief overview of the state of things before providing some insight into how the healers of the time went out treating that nasty cough of yours.
Medicine (De medicina) is the art of either restoring the body to health, or otherwise protecting it against known harms; its practice was not just kept to the confines of physicians (medicus) but also by what people wore and ate of their own volition.
There were three schools of medicine brought forward from the ancients into the medieval sphere; these are the Methodical school, an advocate of remedies and charms believed at the time to have been invented by Apollo. The second is the Empirical school and it is based upon using experience and experimental results to cure a patient; this was believed to be founded by Aesculapius. The final school, the Logical/rational school, was founded by Hippocrates; it is about focusing on characteristics such as age, region or type of illness in a rational study in an attempt to discern the cause of a disease, and through this knew knowledge of the cause to cure it.
So, to break it down:

Empiricists = advocates of experience alone.
Logicians = utilizing both experience and reasoning to find causes.
Methodicians = "take no account of reasoning from principles, nor of circumstances, but only actual diseases" (Isidore, Etymologies IV.iv)

From these three schools of thought we can deduce which one was the most favoured by the learned during the medieval period; as a hint, it is not Methodical.

Onto how the human body was mapped then, and the first thing we find is that the Medieval period really loved symmetry; there are four humors which correspond to the four elements. This is the basic layout;

Humor                              Element
Blood (sanguis)                Air
Bile (Choler)                     Fire
Black Bile (Melancholia)  Earth
Phlegm                             Water

It was believed that all disease came from imbalance within the four humors; for if they increased beyond "their natural course" they caused sickness. (The idea of a "natural" course in nature is an idea that permeates all of medieval scholarship, a planet would follow its natural course, gravity was merely an item heading towards its natural place, all things in existence had a "natural" direction whereupon things went smoothly and only if it were hindered did unpleasant events occur.)
There were also two types of illness, acute and chronic, that were assigned humors also; acute illness is a disease that either strikes swiftly and passes or causes death imminently - to this was ascribed the humors "blood" and "bile".  A chronic illness was a disease that was longstanding, and this was attributed to an imbalance within "Black Bile" and "Phlegm".

Finally, each humor was attributed characteristics like so;

So, you can see the direct correlation; Physician "you have a runny nose - therefore you have too much phlegm. You are cold and moist - therefore the best way to cure this is to place you in a warm dry place next to the fire".

Or just drink whiskey (Blair Athol), my preferred treatment of choice.

Next Time: Medicine continued!




                                                                                                                       

On becoming a real boy.

Taking a brief interlude from handing out facts as best my addled mind can, I thought I would take the time to comment on a friend of mine completing their PhD yesterday; they had managed to get through their viva (an insidious grueling hidden under the guise of an academic conversation) with minor corrections, which frankly, is what we are all hoping for when we go in there.
We all gathered to eat, drink and toast the hero of the hour - making our ancestors proud. It occurred to me throughout the proceedings that I am surrounded by friends, colleagues and mentors all of whom were either with a PhD or on their way to get one - it is common practice to talk about where you are research wise, where you are going, often to such distressed replies as "oh my god you haven't got an appendix yet? get one!".
When you are surrounded by such people, and you watch your friends slowly achieving this long term aim, it becomes something of a running joke that you are not a real person until you achieve your doctorate. Then, and only then, can you join the ranks of the "whole". I am only at the beginning of my saga, and have some way to go before I must slay the Midgard Serpent that is the Viva; but when the time comes I hope I am surrounded by a group as I am now - as much as it is a solitary exercise writing a thesis, knowing some other poor bugger is trying to become a real boy at the same time is comforting (While our Jiminy Cricket supervisors look on and lament our stupid ass decisions!).

The Seven Liberal Arts

The classification of knowledge is what we are beginning to explore today; specifically, the breakdown of knowledge (scientia) into seven parts that would form the basis of scholarly learning throughout the medieval period. As previously mentioned I have begun reading Isidore of Seville's Etymologies, and I figure some background information on just who this guy is and upon the nature of his works will provide some insight into why I have chosen to begin with this text.

Isidore was born around 560, and his family were pretty big on the whole religion thing; his older brother Leander was in fact Bishop of Seville before him, his younger brother, Fulgentius, became Bishop of Ecija, and his sister Florentina entered a nunnery. To this family we might ascribe a certain pious value then, and it will come as no surprise that upon the death of his brother Isidore was made Bishop of Seville. Isidore was a one of the leading churchmen of his country, and presided over important church councils (Seville in 619 and Toledo in 633) despite this eminent position and the demands of his episcopal office Isidore produced an impressive body of works; 24 major texts that culminate in the Etymologies, 23 of which are still extant. This then, is a man with something to say, and the fact most of his works are still around tells us how much what he said was valued by his contemporaries.

To give you an idea what exactly the Etymologies is I will let the words of Isidore's friend and contemporary, Braulio Bishop of Sargossa, explain:

The etymologies is a codex of enormous size, divided by him into topics, not books.[...]Whoever thoughtfully and and thoroughly reads through this work, which is suited to philosophy is every respect, will not be ignorant of the knowledge of human and divine matters.

- Scripta de Vita Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi. Braulionis....Renotatio Librorum, etc. trans. J.C. Martin (2006) pp. 199-207

 It is an attempt to codify and explain pretty much everything going and became the go-to educational text for centuries; I can think of no better book to begin learning what scientia was or what it meant to medieval authors and scholars. He starts the Etymologies by breaking down for us the core areas a learned and scholarly gentleman must acquaint himself with if he is to begin his journey into wisdom - good place for me to start then.

So, with that out of the way I will continue by breaking down for us "The Seven Liberal Disciplines" (De septum liberalibus disciplinis). The Liberal Arts are divided into two main groupings; the first is the Trivium, which contains Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic. The second grouping is the Quadrivium, which contains Arithmetic, Music, Geometry and Astronomy. These titles do not leave much to the imagination but I will run through them quickly;

Grammar: Here we learn the parts of speech; the Roman letters which contain all modern English letters except J and V - although originally there were only 17 legitimate (legitimus) letters, as the letters Q,H,K X, Y and Z were taken from other languages. From here we learn about nouns and verbs, how to properly structure a sentence, how to write in difference professions (i.e military and epistolary codes). This is the beginning of effective, civilized communication, and without such knowledge one would be incapable of mastering any of the subsequent arts. 

Rhetoric: This is the art of speaking well in public, utilizing eloquence and fluency, for the purpose of persuasion. Isidore gives it a moral bent, stating it is used to entice people to the "just and the good". It is the mastery of language, the ability to communicate not merely satisfactorily but to be able to bend a man's minds to your own through words. 

Logic: This is the discipline designed to help you uncover the causes of things. It is a branch of philosophy, and is for empowering minds to define, question and discuss. It is about discerning true from false through various methods. 

The quadrivium is dominated by Mathematics (mathematica) and is the art of studying abstract quantities through reasoning alone - removing any "accidental qualities" such as being even or odd. There are four types of Mathematics, and they follow;  

Arithmetic: This is the study of numeric quantity in and of itself; how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Which is about as fun as a smack in the head personally speaking, and accounts for one of the major reasons I ventured into the Humanities, and I feel it something of an irony I am forced to encounter them now. 

Music: This is the practical knowledge of modulation (modulatio) and consists of sound and song.Isidore goes to great lengths singing the praises (sorry) of Music as an art, stating that "so it is that without music, no other discipline can be perfected, for nothing is without music". His rhetoric when describing the value of music is very moving, stating that "the universe itself is composed of a certain harmony of sounds, and that the very heavens turn to the modulations of harmony". 

Geometry: The measurements and dimensions of the earth; it is divided into four parts: planes (planus), numeric size (magnitudo numerabilis), rational size (magnitudo rationalis) and solid figures (figura solida). 

Astronomy: The law of the stars, and my personal favourite. Here Isidore talks about how it is broken down further into two areas; astrology and astronomy. Astronomy is used to chart the course of the stars, constellations, planets, the seasons, how we reckon time (days, weeks, months, years) - whereas astrology is pretty much how we view it today, the art of using constellations and other heavenly bodies to understand and interpret happenings on earth. Isidore view on astrology is particularly amusing,  he sees its merits in charting the course of the stars but the "superstitious" element of using them to predict events as pagan folly.  

Isidore goes to great lengths to explore and explain each art, and if you are interested I wholly recommend that you read for yourself what he has to say: Isidore of Seville Etymologies trans. Stephen A. Barney (2011) University Press Cambridge.  

So - this is "knowledge", or at least the beginnings of it - we are starting to develop an idea of what signs of scientia we are looking for. If we can find evidence of the above in Scandinavian texts, we can go some way to arguing that they have an intellectual tradition. Which sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Next time: Medieval Medicine!   

Genesis 2.0

In the beginning... there was a History Student at Durham University, desperately clinging onto University life at Masters level after being unceremoniously dumped into the real world upon the completion of his under-graduate degree. It was here, at Durham, where said student would stumble upon the area of history that interested him the most - Science in Medieval Europe.
It would also be where he began learning a whole new language that specialised in the classification of horses' penises - Old Norse (the language has no less than six different words for it).
Wishing to combine the comedy of the language with the seriousness of a real research topic, he decided to pursue a PhD; the ultimate aim of which was to research the transfer of knowledge between central Europe and the Scandinavian countries during the High Medieval Period (That's roughly 1100-1400 AD).

Which leads us to the present day, where this first year PhD student of legend is now popping his blogging cherry in an attempt to focus his thoughts and ideas as and when he has them. To be quite honest, having an audience (imaginary or otherwise) will allow me to get used to the idea of reporting on my findings rather than simply reading stuff and then going for a lie down in the dark.

I am attempting to trace the transfer of scientific thought and reasoning from Central Europe through to the Scandinavian countries (focusing on Norway, Iceland and Denmark). I am looking for evidence of texts existing within these countries that shows not only an understanding of the traditions within central Europe but also examples of original thought - contributions to the greater intellectual milieu of the time.

Which is all fine and dandy, but what is Medieval Science? What is it I am looking for exactly? In order to ascertain the answer I am getting stuck into some primary sources (these are original texts, rather than commentaries upon said texts, which are known as "secondary sources") that were the common treatises to be found in places of learning - such as cathedral schools, monasteries and the burgeoning universities of the time.

The texts in question are; Isidore of Seville's Etymologies, John of Salisbury's Policraticus and Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy.

My next post will be me surmising what I have read and learned within the Etymologies so far; its a BIG text and will require several days reading. I am starting with this book as it is, in essence, the book that would come to define the nature of scholarly learning throughout Europe.

So, next time - The Seven Liberal Arts!