For the teaching of Old English language and literature, for scholarship on early medieval healing practices, and for the study of premodern medicine more broadly, Medical Writings from Early Medieval England offers at once both an accessible point of entry and an invaluable resource for even the most specialized research in the field. This first of a projected two-volume set includes The Old English Herbal and Old English Remedies from Animals, Lacnunga, and Peri Didaxeon, as well as 101 miscellaneous remedies scattered across approximately twenty-five additional manuscripts. The result is nothing short of a monumental feat.
While neither this volume nor any other should be seen as an ultimate replacement for all preceding editions or translations, the compilation of texts, translations, and comparative research generously provided in this first volume of Medical Writings from Early Medieval England is to be celebrated, offering as it does an engaging point of access to a beautiful but often enigmatic body of texts. In short, if you are teaching, researching, or simply curious about any aspect of early medieval healing traditions, begin with this volume and follow the leads it provides. It will serve your needs wondrously.
Lori Ann Garner
Speculum
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