Nov 1, 2022 07:12 PM
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/t...180981040/
EXCERPTS: Until recently, veterinary historians largely ignored the practices of medieval vets, instead tracing the profession’s rise to Claude Bourgelat’s establishment of a veterinary medicine school in France in 1761. Even in medieval Europe, some learned doctors scoffed at magical remedies “as the sort of thing uneducated ‘old women’ did,” says Lea Olsan, an emeritus historian at the University of Louisiana Monroe. Today, however, a growing number of scholars are working to break down anachronistic distinctions between magic, religion and science, showing modern audiences how to view the world as medieval veterinarians—who ran the gamut from quacks to trained professionals—did.
During the Middle Ages, animal diseases could be terrifying—and devastating. For commoners, horses, pigs, sheep and donkeys were important investments, crucial tools and even beloved companions.
“It’s a society that relied heavily on animals for pretty much everything,” says Sunny Harrison, an expert on medieval medicine at the Open University in the United Kingdom and the author of a recent paper on horse-healing rituals. “Agriculturally, but also industrially, for transport, for warfare, for diplomacy—very little got done without animals.”
For the elite, animals like horses, hawks and greyhounds were important status symbols, meaning when one fell ill, their wealthy owners sought the best veterinary care available.
[...] The use of nonsense words and symbols was a source of worry for many medieval doctors and theologians, who couldn’t be certain why a given charm or amulet appeared to be effective.
But “theologians tend[ed] to be much, much more skeptical,” says Catherine Rider, a medieval historian at the University of Exeter in England.
“They worried particularly about healing magic done by the uneducated [and] women,” she adds. “You don’t really know what they mean, you don’t really know what they do. [They’d say] probably, if they work, it’s because you’re calling on demons.”
The vets themselves might counter that they were taking on the demons responsible for disease...
[...] By the end of the Middle Ages, the earlier view of creation that reserved an exalted status for some animals increasingly came under scrutiny. Amid rising panic about witchcraft at the end of the 15th century, even just a close relationship with a cat or dog could be seen as evidence of black magic.
“Things that wouldn’t have caused any issue in the 11th century are being scrutinized more in the 15th century,” says Page, “anything that suggests superstition, even if it’s using fairly mainstream charms and prayers.”
Still, Page stresses that these magical traditions never entirely disappeared. In the 16th century and even later, she says, local “cunning folk” provided much the same service that medieval veterinarians once did, despite facing sometimes-strict scrutiny from the local church.
Though it may be harder today to justify belief in healing charms or defend the use of a child’s urine to cure a horse’s itchy feet (as Bakr did), scholars say there’s much to learn from the veterinary magic of the past.
It’s worth remembering, notes Harrison, that medieval people often cared for animals with a sense of responsibility perhaps surprising to modern observers... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Until recently, veterinary historians largely ignored the practices of medieval vets, instead tracing the profession’s rise to Claude Bourgelat’s establishment of a veterinary medicine school in France in 1761. Even in medieval Europe, some learned doctors scoffed at magical remedies “as the sort of thing uneducated ‘old women’ did,” says Lea Olsan, an emeritus historian at the University of Louisiana Monroe. Today, however, a growing number of scholars are working to break down anachronistic distinctions between magic, religion and science, showing modern audiences how to view the world as medieval veterinarians—who ran the gamut from quacks to trained professionals—did.
During the Middle Ages, animal diseases could be terrifying—and devastating. For commoners, horses, pigs, sheep and donkeys were important investments, crucial tools and even beloved companions.
“It’s a society that relied heavily on animals for pretty much everything,” says Sunny Harrison, an expert on medieval medicine at the Open University in the United Kingdom and the author of a recent paper on horse-healing rituals. “Agriculturally, but also industrially, for transport, for warfare, for diplomacy—very little got done without animals.”
For the elite, animals like horses, hawks and greyhounds were important status symbols, meaning when one fell ill, their wealthy owners sought the best veterinary care available.
[...] The use of nonsense words and symbols was a source of worry for many medieval doctors and theologians, who couldn’t be certain why a given charm or amulet appeared to be effective.
But “theologians tend[ed] to be much, much more skeptical,” says Catherine Rider, a medieval historian at the University of Exeter in England.
“They worried particularly about healing magic done by the uneducated [and] women,” she adds. “You don’t really know what they mean, you don’t really know what they do. [They’d say] probably, if they work, it’s because you’re calling on demons.”
The vets themselves might counter that they were taking on the demons responsible for disease...
[...] By the end of the Middle Ages, the earlier view of creation that reserved an exalted status for some animals increasingly came under scrutiny. Amid rising panic about witchcraft at the end of the 15th century, even just a close relationship with a cat or dog could be seen as evidence of black magic.
“Things that wouldn’t have caused any issue in the 11th century are being scrutinized more in the 15th century,” says Page, “anything that suggests superstition, even if it’s using fairly mainstream charms and prayers.”
Still, Page stresses that these magical traditions never entirely disappeared. In the 16th century and even later, she says, local “cunning folk” provided much the same service that medieval veterinarians once did, despite facing sometimes-strict scrutiny from the local church.
Though it may be harder today to justify belief in healing charms or defend the use of a child’s urine to cure a horse’s itchy feet (as Bakr did), scholars say there’s much to learn from the veterinary magic of the past.
It’s worth remembering, notes Harrison, that medieval people often cared for animals with a sense of responsibility perhaps surprising to modern observers... (MORE - missing details)