University of Cambridge > Talks.cam > Darwin College Humanities and Social Sciences Seminars > Healing Words: Hagiographic Evidence for Medieval Medical Practices

  Browse A-Z

Log in

Googledetails Microsoftdetails

🔐 Log In

Information on

Subscribing to talksdetails Finding a talkdetails Adding a talkdetails Disseminating talksdetails Help and Documentationdetails

ℹ️ Information

Healing Words: Hagiographic Evidence for Medieval Medical Practices

Download to your calendar using vCal

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Moritz Baumstark .

Hagiographic narratives, with their colourful tales of miraculous cures performed by saints, have frequently been used to illuminate medieval healing practices. In many cases historians have sought to draw comparisons, but in so doing they have detached these narratives from their political and social contexts. This paper explores the conceptual and methodological problems associated with using saints’ Lives as sources of historical enquiry. By basing much of the discussion on a single case study – the hagiography of St Mildrith – this paper will demonstrate that it is only through close textual, contextual and codicological study that we can begin to piece together a picture of medieval therapeutic practice.

This talk is part of the Darwin College Humanities and Social Sciences Seminars series.

This talk is included in these lists:

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.

Other lists

Steve H Buckingham House, Murray Edwards College, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DF Babbage Lecture Theatre (New Museum Site)

Other talks

Tea and Coffee Break Peri-Operative Medicine, and Obstetrics and Gynaecology Seminars in Cancer Talk TBC The Play Paradox: How video games build better humans Title TBC
 

© 2006-2025 Talks.cam, University of Cambridge. Contact Us | Help and Documentation | Privacy and Publicity