Crushed weasel testicles, mercury-soaked apples and fingernail-burying rituals: welcome to the world of medieval medicine, now on display at Cambridge University Library’s Curious Cures exhibition.
Opening this spring, the exhibition features dozens of rare manuscripts detailing treatments that blend the bizarre with the brilliant. Translated and curated by Dr James Freeman, the library’s expert in medieval manuscripts, the texts pull back the curtain on the medical thinking of centuries past.
Far from being all superstition, Dr Freeman explained to the BBC that many of these cures stemmed from deeply held beliefs about the body and the cosmos. “It wasn’t simply trial and error,” he says. “Their theories were guided by the balance of the four humours — blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile.”
This balance, they believed, dictated health. Treatments ranged from astrological bloodletting to the taste-testing of urine, each tailored to correct the body’s internal imbalance.
When Science, Magic and Medicine Met
The exhibition doesn’t shy away from the strange. One nosebleed cure involved dipping a man’s testicles in cold water and vinegar — a method apparently ‘proven’ on a friar in Stamford. Another ritual to prevent toothache required burying fingernail clippings beneath an elder tree after reciting a string of prayers.
Though some remedies stretch the imagination, others mirror modern-day advice. Elizabeth of York’s personal health guide — also on display — promotes sleep, exercise, and a balanced diet.
Dr Freeman highlights the blurred lines between academic, folk and even magical medicine: “You’ll find learned physicians copying the same remedies that were passed down by old women and friars.”
Curious Cures: Medicine in the Medieval World is open now, inviting visitors to explore the wisdom, wonder and weirdness of healthcare as it was understood hundreds of years ago — and perhaps reflect on how far we’ve come.
