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IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 1225: Practical Medicine: Assuming and Aiding Memory

Wednesday 4 July 2018, 14.15-15.45

Organiser:Lucy Christine Barnhouse, Department of English / Department of History, College of Wooster, Ohio
Moderator/Chair:Elma Brenner, Wellcome Library, London
Paper 1225-aDiagrams, Mnemonics, and Identity in Three Late Medieval English Surgical Manuscripts
(Language: English)
Sara Oberg Stradal, School of Culture & Creative Art (History of Art), University of Glasgow
Sara Öberg Strådal, Science Museum, London
Index terms: Manuscripts and Palaeography, Medicine, Science
Paper 1225-bInclusions and Exclusions: Directions in Recipes for Women's Healthcare in England
(Language: English)
Kristin Uscinski, Department of History, State University of New York, Purchase
Index terms: Manuscripts and Palaeography, Medicine, Women's Studies
Paper 1225-cJust Give Me the Highlights: Color Washes as Finding Aids in Early Beneventan Manuscripts
(Language: English)
Jeffrey Doolittle, Department of History, Fordham University, New York
Index terms: Manuscripts and Palaeography, Medicine, Monasticism, Science
Abstract

Medical texts compiled by individuals and communities rely throughout on specialized memory. In medical miscellanies and manuals, reliance on and assumptions of memory may be shown both in presence and in absence. The papers on this panel examine the use (and lack) of marginalia and medical diagrams in manuscripts from the central to late Middle Ages. Exact directions for making medicines or using instruments may show the translation of habit to text, creating institutional memory from that of individuals. Also suggestive are instances of silence and elision, suggesting shared understandings among communities of care. The papers on this panel examine the transmission of medieval medical knowledge in monastic, professional, and domestic contexts.