Medieval Medicine: To Live or to Die

Natalya Pelezneva completed the Master’s program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (“HSE”) in “Medieval Studies.” She is a PhD student at HSE and a staff member of the Research-and-Teaching Laboratory of Medieval Studies at HSE. As a scientific journalist, she has published in “Nauchnoe Obozrenie” (“Knife”), “The Schrödinger’s Cat,” and “PostNauka.” In the book, we follow the development of medical theory from which—over millennia—today’s medicine has grown: rational, evidence-based, with advanced technologies and statistics. To see different stages of this knowledge, you’ll have to visit the Greek sanctuaries of Asclepius and the Arab hospitals-bimaristans; wealthy houses surrounded by gardens and the homes of ordinary city dwellers, whatever faith they followed.   – Medieval views on the causes of various diseases – Historical forms of disease prevention – Treatment methods and medieval hospitals – The fight against epidemics – Women in medieval medicine – Mental disorders and attempts to cure them