The Salerno remedies

<<  <  >  >>

 

On the whole, cosmetics seem not to have occupied an important place in the medieval period. The remedies of the Salerno school, widely circulated across Europe, constituted the basis of both learned and popular medicine. The recipes recorded in books for domestic use gave prominence to plasters and ointments, as well as to products used against blemishes, dry patches, cankers, fistulas, wounds, etc. Surprisingly, the 14th century Great Plague did not favor hygiene amongst populations, but it did entail a new use of scents and perfumes, which supposedly protected against noxious air.

Remedies book. Here a remedy against skin deseases. Anonymous manuscript (XVth century).   BIU Santé Pharmacie : cote MS 01.

Arnauld de Villeneuve (XIIIth century). Medicina Salernitana. Id est conservandae bonae valetudinis praecepta ... Genève: Jacobus Stoer, 1591.   BIU Santé Pharmacie : cote RES 200162(1).

Barthelemy Glanville (XIIIth century). Le Proprietaire des choses tres utille et proffitable aux corps humains avec aulcunes additions nouvellement adjoustees, cest assavoir les vertuz et proprietez des eaues artificielles et des herbes pareillement ... Rouen: Richard Macé, 1512.   BIU Santé Pharmacie : cote RES 6290.

Clothes of Physician who visits the plague victims. Traité de la peste recueilli des meilleurs auteurs anciens et modernes, de Jean-Jacques Manget. Genève: Philippe Planchi, 1721.   BIU Santé Médecine : image 01195.

Hyssop (Hysopus officinalis). Illustration from the Tacuinum Sanitatis (XIVth century) – Bibliothèque nationale (N.A.L. 1673)   BIU Santé Médecine : image CISA 0894.