Women healers in medieval life and literature (Essay index reprint series)

The book is a valuable contribution to the history of medieval medicine and the involvement of women, from the 11th to the end of the 15th century, with particular attention to conditions in England. Although its main focus is women healers and their practices, both in history and in literature, the study covers a good deal more than women's activities alone, for example, it gives an account of what was taught and practised in academic medicine in the later Middle Ages. The author sets out with clarity the curriculum which the schools of the University evolved, and shows how it was based on the older works of Galen, Hippocrates, Avicenna, etc., with glosses and commentaries by writers such as Arnold of Villanova, Peter of Abano and others. The growth of the art of surgery and the division between physicians and surgeons in the 13th century leads her to discuss the great surgeons Saliceto, Lanfranc, de Chauliac and John Arderne. The book is written in an attractive easy style, the matter well arranged, with two useful appendixes giving the names of some women practitioners between 1100 and 1500, and a glossary of herbs mentioned in the text. There is also a full and accurate bibliography.