Medieval Disease and Healing: 1200-1500
Thought on disease and healing in the Middle Ages drew heavily on Hippocrates (d. c.370 bce), Galen (d. 216), and Dioscorides (d. 90 ce), ancient physicians whose writings made their way into Europe by way of the Muslim world through the work of Avicenna (d. 1037 ce) and Averroes (d. 1198 ce) and, in the Jewish world through the work of Maimonides (d. 1207 ce). The Hebrew and Christian Bibles also retained their importance in helping medieval Europeans understand plagues and other calamities within a religious context. See below for medieval manuscript leaves from a Latin Bible, showing Job's medical travails in the Book of Job and the Offices of the Dead from a fifteenth century Book of Hours.
"Job on the Dung Heap" Prologue to Job, Job 5:9. Latin Bible, Paris, 1210-1230. Rare and Distinctive Collections, CU Boulder Libraries.
Analyzing a painting is sure to reveal a great deal about the era in which it was created, and "Job on the Dung Heap" (Prologue to the Book of Job) is indeed no exception. This piece, while unconventional in nature, highlights a great deal of truisms about the human condition and the time period when it was produced.
This piece highlights an extreme cultural predisposition to religion and religious concepts, precisely the notion that God tests people to ensure their faith is bona fide. In the piece, Job is pictured looking defeated, and while it may seem somewhat strange in a modern context, a dung heap is often used on a farm to consolidate animal feces and fertilize crops. Job faced a series of challenges in his life, including losing all of his money, his children and being subjected to illnesses. Job faced a series of challenges in his life, including losing all of his money, his children and being subjected to illnesses, here covered with painful sores that may reflect leprosy, scabies, or possibly a rare genetic disease (NIH). His place atop the dunghill signifies his intense defeat and degraded condition.
- Anonymous, Fall '22
Book of Hours, France, c. 1450. Rare and Distinctive Collections, CU Boulder Libraries.
This leaf is from an illuminated, or illustrated, Book of Hours, a Christian collection of devotions and readings that became popular beginning in the twelfth century (Schell, 2011, 19; Jackson, 2019). This example is from fifteenth-century France during the time of the bubonic plague’s regular recurrence in Europe. This page is specifically a cover from the book’s section about funerals and death, titled the Office of the Dead (Jackson, 2019). These books contained prayers for each time of the day, and were found in more wealthy and aristocratic households, varying in levels of vanity (Jackson, 2019). The population was very religious in this period because it was the only source of hope; living in a time where not much was known about the world and the chance of death was high. In these times of plague especially, religion provided one of the only forms of optimism, asking for God’s help because the waves of mass eradication were so unexplainable.
Every Book of Hours contained the Office of the Dead, commonly shown with an illustrated cover page of a miniature funeral depiction. These were illustrated to “show visual ques “to teach and remind”, and along with the text are used to “inform and assist the reader” (Schell, 2011, 29). The prayers contained in the Office of the Dead were commonly used during funerals and by family members to pray for the forgiveness of departed one’s sins and for their hasty passage to heaven (Jackson, 2019). These prayer books were best sellers of the time and there were many of these books which varied in levels of vanity (Jackson, 2019). The audience varied from common people to royalty, any Christian at the time would have a Book of Hours (Jackson 2019). The varying level of intricacy used to craft these books, known as illumination, showed class and devotion to the Christian religion, and images were used to “both appeal to the eye and deepen the experience of prayer” (Jackson, 2019; Schell 2011, 34).
The medium of this burial scene painted on vellum was once part of a complete Book of Hours made in France during the fifteenth century. This illuminated page depicts a burial of a large casket draped with a tapestry of the cross. The tapestry is black and gold, the black intending to display the grimness of death and the cross, in gold, providing a stark contrast to display the church as a light in the dark times. Behind the casket, entirely white men in colored robes are standing. Additionally, the digger of the grave shown kneeling is the only other figure depicted in bright colors. The are priests standing behind the casket, they are reading from a green book, demonstrating how to use the Office of the Dead. The man digging the grave is dressed in clothes which are the same color as the green book and the red robe which the book holder is wearing. This could be to exalt the people doing the hard work of digging these graves. The figures cloaked in black are the loved ones mourning in prayer at this funeral.
- Harrison Cabe, Spring, '23