- Physician, Apothecary, or Surgeon? The Medieval Roots of Professional Boundaries in Later Medical Practice By the mid-sixteenth century all three major branches of medicine; physic, pharmacy, and surgery, had legally defined rights and duties based on practitioners’ supposed levels and quality of knowledge.
- Apothecary shop, 15th century fresco, Issogne Castle, Italy. Apothecary is a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients. The modern pharmacist has taken over this role and in some languages and regions the word is still used to refer to a retail pharmacy or a pharmacist who owns one.
- Medieval doctors, at least in the later Middle Ages, learnt their expertise at a university and enjoyed a high status but their practical role in society was limited to diagnosis and prescription. A patient was actually treated by a surgeon and given medicine which was prepared by an apothecary, both of whom were regarded as tradesmen because.
- Our medieval stillroom apothecary products are formulated from medieval and renaissance recipes with due regard to modern safety. Enjoy the luxury of traditional fragrances and botanical blends without the risk!
Medieval Pharmacy, Apothecary, 2018-2020
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Medieval Islamic pharmacology was not only extensive but also the strongest empirically based biological science. Like most medieval medicine, the Islamic viewpoint was an outgrowth of Galen’s Humoral Theory and focused on the need to balance the humors, or bodily fluids. al-Tabari the prominent Persian scholar in 10th c. said that the therapeutic value of each drug needed to be reconciled with the particular disease, and he urged physicians not to simply provide a routine remedy. He recommended glass or ceramic storage vessels for liquid drugs. There are only a few of the herbs that Arabs valued and recognized for their healing properties and as vehicles for making medicines more palatable.
200+ bottles with 12th c. recipes, 2019-2020, H: 6 x W: 60 x D: 42 inches
This work features 200 bottles containing rolled papers of medical recipes from the medieval period that concern women’s health or beauty. The recipes are taken from the book The Trotula, an English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine (2001), edited and translated by Dr. Monica H. Green. The Trotula is an ensemble of three independent works, written by three different authors. One of them was written by, or derived from the teachings of, Trota of Salerno in the 12th century, according to Dr. Green. These recipes address various health issues for women, children, and men, using herbs, plants, seeds, animal fat or bone, eggs, and wine, to name a few.
The Forgotten Women of Science, a solo exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
Examples of the recipes inside the bottles:
From the book, The Trotula, an English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine (2001), edited and translated by Dr. Monica H. Green.
“For whitening the Hands [241] for whitening and smoothing the hands, let some ramsons be cooked in water until all the water has been consumed. And stirring well, add tartar and afterward two eggs, and with this you will rub the hands.”
“On Freckles of the Face [177] For freckles of the face which occur by accident, take root of bistort and reduce it to powder, and cuttlefish bones and frankincense, and from all these things make a powder. And mix with little water and then smear it, rubbing, on the hands in the morning, rubbing them with rose water or water of bran or with breadcrumbs until you have removed [the freckles].”
“For removing wrinkles [176] For wrinkled old women, take stinking iris, that is gladden, and extract its juice, and with this juice anoint the face in the evening. And in the morning the skin will be raised and it will erupt, which rupture we treat with the above-mentioned ointment in which root of lily is employed. And first pulling off the skin, which after the rupture has been washed, it will appear very delicate.”
Healing Chest, Euphrat Museum of Art
The installation is modeled after pharmacies from the middle ages. Glass bottles contain plant extracts, oil, and powders placed in a wooden chest. The healing properties of medicinal plants are written on cards and placed on a shelf on the wall. Exhibition visitors are encouraged to open the bottles and smell the contents and take a card.
Healing Chest, hand-painted wooden chest, glass bottles, plants extracts, oil and powder, hand-made table, healing cards, shelf, and silkscreen on the wall, approximately 9 x 5 feet
The installation is modeled after pharmacies from the middle ages. Glass bottles contain plant extracts, oil, and powders placed in a wooden chest. The healing properties of medicinal plants are written on cards and placed on a shelf on the wall. Exhibition visitors are encouraged to open the bottles and smell the contents and take a card.
Installation view at the Euphrat Museum of Art, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
Healing cards in the shelf explaining the healing properties of plants
Research
“The professional who is specialized in the collection of all drugs, choosing the very best of each simple or compound, and in the preparation of good remedies from them following the most accurate methods and techniques as recommended by experts in the healing arts.”
Abu al-Rayan al-Biruni, c. 1045 CE
The image on the left: Flanked by figures indicating his tutelage from master physicians (the figure on the right may represent first-century Greek physician Dioscorides), a saydalani—as an early pharmacist was called in Arabic—is shown at work in his dispensary, in which hang a variety of vessels for alchemical production.
The image in the center: The illustration comes from 12th-century Iraq. This depiction of an early European apothecary appeared in Tacuinum Sanitatis, a 14th-century Latin translation of Ibn Butlan’s 11th-century Taqwim al-Sihah (Maintenance of Health).
A page from Kitab al-Diryaq (The Book of Antidotes), a 13th-century guide to medicinal plants, also from Iraq, highlights the role of botany in early Islamic pharmacy.
Pharmacy bottles, Medieval period, Courtesy of Morgan Library, New York, USA
What’s old is new, or so they say. That’s fine when it comes to fashion trends and music, but what about medicine? Surley modern medicine is superior in every way to the medicine of old? Not so fast, in 2015, researchers at Nottingham University “recreated a ninth-century Anglo-Saxon remedy using onion, garlic and part of a cow’s stomach”. Shockingly, they found that it nearly irradicated the bacteria that causes MRSA. Is this an isolated example of the genius of Medieval medicine or are there other historical cures just waiting to be discovered? Well, let’s take a little journey through the strange world of the Medieval apothecary and find out.
First of all, it is important to understand that in the Middle Ages, most medicine used for common ailments was harvested from the home garden. These medicines typically consisted of a single ingredient, such as parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, yes, just like everyone’s favorite Simon and Garfunkel song. You know you love it, I won’t tell.
Early Italian Pharmacy. Artist: unknown. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Other medicines contained multiple ingredients and required compounding or mixing. Producing these concoctions could be complicated and were often purchased from an apothecary. The apothecary was both the person who mixed the medicines and the physical building where they were purchased. Think of the Slug and Jiggers Apothecary from the Harry Potter series. It’s probably not so far off from what an authentic Medieval shop may have looked like.
When entering the apothecary, you witness ingredients of all sorts, vegetable, animal and mineral, being mixed, using a complicated blend of magic, theology, dogma, and science. The ingredients range from the ordinary, extraordinary, to the downright disturbing. One of the more popular sources for procuring ingredients was dead people. Yup, you read that right, dead people equal medicine.
To be fair, the idea of using dead people to cure what ails you can be traced to ancient times, so it wasn’t uniquely Medieval. For example, the finest in ancient Egyptian medicine, as outlined in the Ebers Papyrus, recommends for diseases of the eye, an ointment made from the brains of a freshly dead corpse. “Hey, I’ve got some fresh brains here. Great, let me put them in my eye”! No thank you.
Pollice Verso (“With a Turned Thumb”), an 1872 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
However, the ancient Egyptians weren’t the only ones participating in some highly questionable behavior. Ancient Romans also thought that eating dead people held some value for their health. In Rome, the blood and liver from freshly dead gladiators was highly sought after as a curative for epilepsy and other, ahem, “virility-based” issues. After a violent gladiatorial fight, fine Romans could be seen harvesting body parts and blood from the poor souls left to die in the sand. Here’s hoping the poor guy was actually dead before the madness ensued.
But I digress, back to Medieval Europe. Here, human skull was ground into a powder, mixed with liquid, and ingested, with the hope of curing ailments of the head. Think headaches and the like. The underlying belief being that “like cures like”. You have a headache? A little touch of someone else’s head should do the trick. Get it? No? You’re not alone. Today we call it homeopathy. You may be selling it, but I’m not buying.
The problem with corpse medicine, as if there is only one, is that before you can eat dead people you have to find one. A great place to start the hunt was with the friendly local executioner. Looking to score some human fat or body juice? He was your main man! Executioners processed the bodies of criminals and enemies of the state, much like a butcher would a cow. Flesh was flayed, bones ground, blood collected, and fat rendered. Soylent Green really is people! I think I’m going to be sick.
Usnea australis. Author: Eric Guinther. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Medieval Apothecary Tools
In turn, apothecaries purchased these “ingredients”, compounded them, and sold them to the general public. You should thank your lucky stars for the FDA! However, before being sold, ingredients from the dead were typically mixed with mosses called usnea. These mosses could be found growing in the local graveyard. Modern herbalists prescribe this same moss to boost the immune system. At least part of it was “good medicine”.
Apothecary Definition
One such concoction, called Axung Hominis was made with human fat, mixed with moss. It was applied to open wounds or rubbed on arthritic joints. Now, as unsanitary as that sounds, there is some evidence that it may have helped to prevent infections in wounded limbs, possibly preventing the need for amputation. That would be a tough call, rub human fat on my open wound or lose an arm. I’ll have to get back with you on that one.
Corpse medicine is only one slightly disturbing, but highly interesting, aspect of the apothecary. Check back soon to discover the many uses of human urine and the “benefits” of feces to the health of the Medieval man! And Also be sure to come an check out our new special Exhibition Knights!