IMC 2020: Sessions
Session 1521: Meteorology, Miracles, and Medicine: Traversing the Borders of Magic in Medieval Europe
Thursday 9 July 2020, 09.00-10.30
Sponsor: | Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading |
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Organiser: | Rebecca A. C. Rist, Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading |
Moderator/Chair: | Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading |
Paper 1521-a | 'In the scholarly no man's land?': The Popularity of Late Medieval Weather Prognostics (Language: English) Index terms: Manuscripts and Palaeography, Medicine, Science |
Paper 1521-b | Charms, Amulets, and Ligatures: The Boundaries of Magic, Medicine, and Religion in the Middle Ages (Language: English) Index terms: Medicine, Religious Life, Science |
Paper 1521-c | 'And sche shall be delyveryd a-non with-owȝt perell': Medicinal, Magical, and Miraculous Treatments for Childbirth in Late Medieval England (Language: English) Index terms: Medicine, Social History, Women's Studies |
Abstract | This panel will explore the boundaries of magic in the Middle Ages and the inherent tensions between belief and science. The first paper will analyse the ways in which late medieval weather prognostic texts were defined and used in comparison to early medieval ones. The second paper will examine the connections, but also blurred boundaries, between miracles, medicine, and magic and examine what was considered a miracle or medical cure, and what magic or demonic. The final paper will discuss treatments for pregnant women in late medieval England which aided childbirth and often traversed the boundaries of our modern concepts of medicine, magic, and religion. |