Syllabus

HIST 3214: Plagues and Peoples: Health and Disease in Medieval Europe

Mondays and Thursdays, 10:00 AM – 11:15 AM 

Keating Hall, Room 215

Professor Rachel Podd (rpodd@fordham.edu) 

Office: Dealy Hall, Room 650

Office Hours: Mondays and Thursdays, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM and by appointment 

Course Description: 

In recent years, the study of health in the premodern world has flourished, as new approaches like viral genome sequencing and osteoarchaeology have led to a reconsideration of the longstanding narrative of the Middle Ages as a time of hardship and disease. In this course, we will use these new approaches together with primary source material to consider how medieval people conceived of and experienced health and disease, including units focused on diet, occupation, and the plague.

Goals: 

Framing questions you should keep in mind throughout the course: 

• How do we define illness and health?
• How do these definitions change depending on age, sex, or economic standing?
• How do we define medicine?
• Who practices medicine? 

Course Expectations and Policies: 

Attendance: Attendance is absolutely essential for succeeding in this class, as well as a requirement of Fordham University. Missing more than three class periods without a written excuse or prior consultation with the professor will negatively affect your grade; the participation grade will drop one whole grade after three unexcused absences. That being said, absences for religious reasons, or those that are pre-approved by the instructor or due to an emergency will not count against you.  Please consult the Student Handbook for more information about excused absences. 

Electronics: Cell phones must be on silent or turned off and put away. Laptops and tablets ARE allowed in class, but for the purpose of accessing course readings and note-taking. If, however, electronics become a distraction, this policy may change at my discretion. 

Special Accommodations: Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, all students, with or without disabilities, are entitled to equal access to the programs and activities of Fordham University.  If you believe that you have a disabling condition that may interfere with your ability to participate in this course, you may be entitled to accommodations.  Please schedule an appointment to speak with someone at the Office of Disability Services (Rose Hill – O’Hare Hall, Lower Level, x0655 or at Lincoln Center – Room 207, x6282).

The Writing Center: the center is open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. -8 p.m. and Fridays between 10 a.m.-3 p.m. The Writing Center is located in Walsh Library, in the Reference Area in Room 121. Students may reserve up to an hour of writing help with the staff of the center on any given day and as much as an hour-and-a-half per week. To sign up for a session, go to www.fordham.edu/writingcenterand follow the instructions. If there are questions, please call: (718) 817-0077.

Plagiarism– Any and all plagiarism is a violation of Fordham’s Code of Academic Integrity. Dishonesty in any of your academic work is grounds for an “F” for the whole course. Violations falling under the heading of plagiarism include, but are not limited to, turning in another student’s work as your own, copying from a source without proper citation, and lying in your work. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please see me for clarification. 

Course Texts:

There will be no required textbook for this course; I will upload the necessary course readings to blackboard. If, however, you would prefer a hard copy, you are welcome to buy the following books or access them at Walsh Library. 

Faith Wallis, ed. Medieval Medicine: A Reader. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. 

Judith M. Bennett, Medieval Europe: A Short History, 11^thEdition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. 

Grading Distribution:  

Participation: 20% 

Throughout the semester, I will evaluate your attention to the reading and participation in class through performance during in-class discussions relating to historical sources and debates. These assignments CANNOT BE MADE UP unless you have an excused absence for that day. Regular but silent attendance will result in a C/C+ on this portion of the course grade

Midterm Exam: 25%

At the end of Unit Three, a midterm exam covering the previous units’ material will be given. This exam will involve multiple choice, short answer, and a choice of one short essay question. Further details will be given closer to the date of the exam. 

Assignment 1: 10%

Presentation of topic related to medieval medicine  

Final Presentation: 20%

A final, written copy of your presentation, complete with footnotes, at least one sourced image, and suggestions for further reading. Further details about this assignment will be offered on a separate assignment sheet. 

Final Exam: 25% 

During the designated final exam period, an exam covering all course material will be given. This exam will involve multiple choice, short answer, and a choice of one short essay question. Further details will be given closer to the date of the exam.

Extra Credit, worth 5 points on either the midterm or final exam: Make a medieval medicine meme for display on the course blog.

Grading Rubric:

93-100	A	77-79	C+
90-92	A-	73-76	C
87-89	B+	70-72	C-
83-86	B	60-69	D
80-82	B-	0-59	F

Course Schedule: 

Thursday, August 29^th: Course Introduction 

Monday, September 2^nd: Labor Day, no class

UNIT I: Defining Medieval, Defining Medicine

Wednesday, September 4^th: Defining the Middle Ages 

• Selections from Judith Bennett, Medieval Europe: A Short History, 1-8
• Wim Blockmans and Peter Hoppenbrouwers, “Concepts and Interpretive Frameworks,” in Introduction to Medieval Europe,  300-1550,  1-9 
• Miri Rubin, “The ‘Middle Ages’?” (4-28)

Thursday, September 5^th : Defining Health and Illness

• Wallis,Medieval Medicine (hereafter Wallis) Isidore, “The Four Humors of the Body,” (6-7); “Acute Diseases” (7-9); “The Wisdom of the Art of Medicine” (17-22); Jean of Touremire (344-348); Guillaume Boucher (348-351) and “The Salerno Regimen of Health” (487-492) 
• Rawcliffe, “The Concept of Health in Late Medieval Society” in Le interazioni fra economia e ambiente biologico nell’Europa preindustriale secc. XIII-XVIII. 

Monday, September 9^th : Sources I : Skeletal Remains and Osteoarchaeology 

• Robin Fleming, “Living and Dying in Early Medieval Britain: The Fifth to Eleventh Century,” in Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400-1070 (London: Penguin Books, 2010), 345-366. 
• Milner and Boldsen, “Life not death: Epidemiology from Skeletons” International Journal of Paleopathology 17 (2017), 26-39.
• Agnes Stirland, “Care in the Medieval Community” 

Thursday, September 12^th: Sources I: Saints and Miracles

• Selections from Thomas of Monmouth’s The Life and Miracles of William of Norwich,Book III, chapters xxii-xxxii
• R.C. Finucane, “Medieval Families and Children’s Illnesses,” in The Rescue of Innocents: Endangered Children in Medieval Miracles (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997), 55-100. 

Monday, September 16^th: Sources II: Recipe Books and Medical Treatises

• Wallis, Selections from Leechbooks I and II, (119-127); Aldobrandino of Siena (493-500)
• Linda Ehrsam Voigts, “Herbs and Herbal Healing Satirized in Middle English Texts,” inHerbs and Healers from the Ancient Mediterranean through the Medieval West, eds. Anne van Arsdall and Timothy Graham, 217-230

UNIT II: From Hippocrates to the New Pandemics

Thursday, September 19^th– Classical Medicine: Greece and Rome

• Wallis, “The Fragmented Heritage of Medieval Medicine,” (3-4); Isidore “Medicine,” “The Study of Medicine,” (1-10); Aphorisms (10-13)
• Carmichael, “Health, Disease and the Medieval Body” 

Monday, September 23^rd  – Byzantium: the Early Medieval Pandemic

• Peregrine Horden, “Plague in the Age of Justinian”
• Isabella Andorlini, “Medicine in Late Antiquity: Methods, Texts, and Contexts” 
• Extract from Procopius’ History of the Wars, available at https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/542procopius-plague.asp

Thursday, September 26^th– Islamic Medicine and the Transmission to the West

• Usmah Ibn Minqudh, “Excerpts on the Franks,” available through the Fordham Internet History Sourcebook at [https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/Usamah2.asp] 
• Peter E. Pormann and Emilie Savage-Smith, “Introduction,” and “Medical Theory” in Medieval Islamic Medicine (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2007), 1-5; 5-75.

Monday, September 30^th– The Black Death and Paleoepidemiology 

• Wallis, “The Special Challenges of Plague” (410-430) 
• Selections from Horrox, The Black Death 
• Lester Little, “Plague Historians in Lab Coats” 

Thursday, October 3^rd– New Horizons, New Diseases 

• Wallis, “John of Gaddesden on Smallpox,” (269-275)
• Fray Bernadino de Sahagún, “Chapter Twenty Nine,” in General History of the Things New Spain,, eds. and trans. Arthur J.O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble. Available online at [https://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/modules/us/mod01_pop/evidence_detail_08.html] 
• Sheldon Watts, “Smallpox” in Epidemics and History: Disease, Power and Imperialism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 84-111

UNIT III: The Medical Marketplace: Doctors, Barber-surgeons, Leeches and Wise Women

Monday, October 7^th: Professional Doctors

• Wallis, “The Doctor at Court,” (75-81)
• Carol Rawcliffe, “The Profits of Practice: the Wealth and Status of Medical Men in Later Medieval England,” Social History of Medicine 1 (1988): 61-78.

Thursday, October 10^th: Apothecaries and Barber-Surgeons

• Wallis, “Is Surgery a Science” (288-292);”A Surgical Sampler” (300-306)
• Michael McVaugh, “Surgery in the Fourteenth-Century Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier”
• Hannes Kleineke, “The Medicines of Katherine, Duchess of Norfolk” 

Monday, October 14^th: Columbus Day, no class

Thursday, October 17^th: Women in the Medical Marketplace   

• Harris-Stoertz, “Midwives in the Middle Ages? Birth Attendants, 600-1300” 
• Iona McCleery, “Medicine and Disease: the female ‘patient’ in medieval Europe” 
• Hannah Ingram, “‘Pottes of Tryacle’ and ‘Bokes of Phisyke’: The Fifteenth-century Disease Management Practices of Three Gentry Families” 

Monday, October 21^st:  Who Can Practice Medicine?

• Wallis, “Should Clergy and Monks Practice Medicine?” (363-365); “Jewish Doctors: The Case of Provence” (380-386)
• Wallis, “The Faculty of Medicine of Paris vs. Jacoba Felicie” (366-369), “Licensing and Accountability” (445-454) 
• Monica Green and Daniel Lord Smail, “The Trial of Floreta d’Ays (1403): Jews, Christians, and Obstetrics in Later Medieval Marseille,”Journal of Medieval History 32.2 (2008), 185-211. 
• Lori Woods, “Mainstream or Marginal Medicine: The Case of a Parish Healer named Geraula de Codines”

Thursday, October 24^th: MIDTERM EXAM

UNIT IV: Birth, Death, and Everything In Between

Monday, October 28^th  – Astrology and Medicine 

• British Library Egerton MS 827 (modernized)
• Linda Ehrsam Voigts, “The Medical Astrology of Ralph Hoby,” in The Friars in Medieval Britain,152-168 

Thursday, October 31^st–The Medieval Doctor’s Appointment 

• Wallis, “The Doctor as Connoisseur of Pulses and Urines,” (38-45), John of Arderne’s Medical Etiquette (455)  

Monday, November 4^th– Reproductive medicine

• Wallis,The Trotula, (185-190)
• Monica Green, Making Women’s Medicine Masculine(2008), 1-17, 22-28

Thursday, November 7^th– Battlefield/occupational medicine

• Wallis, Regimen Almarie(501-503)
• Carol Rawcliffe, “Health and Safety at Work in Medieval East Anglia” 
• Piers D. Mitchell, “Trauma in the Crusader Period City of Caesarea: A Major Port in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean” 
• Michael McVaugh, “Arnold of Villanova’s Regimen Almarie (Regimen castra sequentium) and Medieval Military Medicine” 

Monday, November 11^th– Managing the Dead 

• Wallis, “Academic Dissection” (231-247)
• Park, “The Death of Isabella Della Volpe,” 
• Park, selections from Secrets of Women  

UNIT V: Defining and Managing the Sick

Thursday, November 14^th: Mental Illness

• Selections from Emma de Beston’s competency inquest
• William of Norwich, Book V, xii-xiii (p202-205), Book VI, iv-vi (223-227)
• Select one essay from Madness in Medieval Law and Custom, edited by Wendy J. Turner. [Available through the Fordham Library Website] 

Monday, November 18^th: Physical Disability and Impairment

• William of Norwich, Book V, xiii-xvii (p205-209); Book VI, xi-xii 
• Selections from Irina Metzler, Understanding Physical Impairment in the Middle Ages

Thursday, November 21^st : Leprosy

• Wallis, “The Difficult Case of Leprosy,” (339-344)
• Selections from Carole Rawcliffe, Leprosy in Medieval England 
• Elma Brenner, “Between Palliative Care and Curing the Soul: Medical and Religious Responses to Leprosy in France and England, c. 1100-c1500,” in Medicine, Religion, and Gender in Medieval Culture(2015). [EBOOK]

Monday, November 25^th: Social Control – The Community in Times of Sickness  

• Selections from Horrox, The Black Death 
• Guy Geltner, “Public Health in the Pre-Modern City” 
• Carol Rawcliffe, “Great Stenches, Horrible Sights and Deadly Abominations: Butchery and the Battle Against Plague in Late Medieval English Towns” 

Thursday, November 28^th: Thanksgiving, No Class

Monday, December 2^nd:  Hospitals

• Wallis, “The Organization and Ethos of a Medieval Hospital,” and “Medical Care in a Medieval Hospital” (462-484)
• Peregrine Horden, “How Medicalised were Byzantine Hospitals?” 

Thursday, December 5^th: Wrap Up 

Wednesday, December 11^th-December 18^th: Final Exams