Medieval Death Trip

We complete our look at epilepsy in the Middle Ages by considering how religion and medicine intersect in surviving medical texts and how classical learning was reintroduced by looking at the example of John of Gaddesden, possibly the model for Chaucer's Doctour of Phisik.

Today's Texts:

John of Gaddesden. "John of Gaddesden on Epilepsy." Edited by William G. Lennox, translated by Adrian P. English, Annals of Medical History, vol. 1, no. 3, May 1939, pp. 283-307. Semantic Scholar.

Origen. Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, translated by John Patrick, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 9, edited by Allan Menzies, Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1896. New Advent, revised and edited by Kevin Knight, www.newadvent.org/fathers/1016.htm

Herbarium. In Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, translated by Thomas Cockayne, vol. 1, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1864, pp. 1-325. Archive.org.

Leech Book. Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, translated by Thomas Cockayne, vol. 2, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1864. Archive.org.

"Life of St. Winefred." Lives of the Cambro British Saints, of the Fifth and Immediate Succeeding Centuries, from Ancient Welsh & Latin MSS. in the British Museum and Elsewhere, with English Translations, an Explanatory Notes, edited and translated by W. J. Rees, Welsh MSS. Society, 1853, pp. 515-529. Google Books.

Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:02:34 Text: Gospel of Mark (NIV), Ch. 9:14-29
00:04:36 Commentary
00:10:12 Text: Origen, Commentary on Matthew
00:11:44 Commentary
00:13:58 Flashback to Life and Miracles of St. Winefred
00:14:41 Commentary
00:18:33 Text: Bald's Leechbook
00:19:44 Commentary
00:22:17 Text: Anglo-Saxon Herbarium, "On Asterion"
00:23:11 Commentary
00:24:03 Text: Anglo-Saxon Herbarium, "On Artemisia"
00:25:05 Commentary
00:34:28 Text: John of Gaddesden, Rosa Medicinae
00:56:59 Commentary
01:00:42 PSA: Seizure First Aid
01:04:03 Riddle
01:04:39 Outro

This episode we begin a two-part exploration into the understanding and treatment of epilepsy in the middle ages. But to get to the medieval, we have to start with its ancient antecedents, so here in Part 1, we look at texts produced by the Hippocratic school and its later followers.

Today's Texts:
Lucretius. On the Nature of Things. Translated by John Selby Watson and John Mason Good, George Bell & Sons, 1893. Internet Archive.
Wilson, J.V. Kinnier, and E. H. Reynolds, translators. "Translation and Analysis of a Cuneiform Text Forming Part of a Babylonian Treatise on Epilepsy," Medical History, vol. 34, 1990, pp. 185-198. National Center for Biotechnical Information, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1036070/
Hippocrates. "On the Sacred Disease." The Genuine Works of Hippocrates, vol. 2, translated by Francis Adams, Sydenham Society, 1849, pp. 831-858. Google Books.
Galen. "Advice for an Epileptic Boy." Translated by Owsei Temkin, Texts and Documents, reprinted from Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine, vol. 2, no. 3, May 1934, pp. 179-189. Archive.org.
Paulus Ægineta. The Medical Works of Paulus Ægineta, the Greek Physician. Vol. 1, edited and translated by Francis Adams, J. Welsh, 1834. Google Books.

Image Credits:
Babylonian tablet on epilepsy (British Museum, Tablet 47753, obverse, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Papyrus fragment of Hippocratic oath (Wellcome Collection, via Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY 4.0).
Printed engraving depicting Galen, Avicenna, and Hippocrates from a 16th-century medical book (Wikimedia Commons).

00:00:00 Introduction
00:13:53 Text: from the Babylonian Sakikku
00:15:26 Commentary
00:23:21 Text: from Hippocrates, "On the Sacred Disease"
00:34:21 Commentary
00:41:09 Text: from Galen, "Advice for an Epileptic Boy"
00:45:57 Commentary
00:50:23 Text: from Paulus Ægineta, Medical Compendium in Seven Book, Book 3
00:57:36 Commentary
00:59:06 Mystery Word: λαπακτικός
01:00:04 Outro

As a follow-up to our 2025 saint's-life generating Advent Calendar game, we hear an actual medieval saint's life and discuss how we get some of our saintly terminology. You'll also find out where you can get a downloadable version of the Advent Calendar game!

Today's Texts:
"Life of St. Winefred." Lives of the Cambro British Saints, of the Fifth and Immediate Succeeding Centuries, from Ancient Welsh & Latin MSS. in the British Museum and Elsewhere, with English Translations, an Explanatory Notes, edited and translated by W. J. Rees, Welsh MSS. Society, 1853, pp. 515-529. Google Books.
"The Miracles of St. Winifred's Well." The British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 1762, 13 Oct. 1894, p. 829. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20230146
The Rule of St. Benedict. Translated by D. Oswald Hunter Blair, 2nd ed., Sands & Co,m 1907. Google Books.

Music credit: "Ton y botel (Ebenezer)." Performed by the Wilkes-Barre Quartet, Victor, 1922. United States Library of Congress.

00:00:00 Introduction
00:18:01 Text: The Life and Miracles of St. Winefred
00:47:36 Commentary
00:53:55 Riddle
00:54:52 Journaling Game Now Downloadable
00:57:23 Outro

In this prelude appendix to our episode on saint's lives, we hear versions of the life of St. Valentine from three different medieval sources.

Today's Texts:

First English edition of the Nuremberg chronicle: being the Liber chronicarum of Dr. Hartmann Schedel. Edited and translated by Kosta Hadavas, U of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, 2023, https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/3SXNV3NHBQLFQ8J [used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.]

Jacobus de Voragine. "Life of S. Valentine." In The Golden Legend, or Lives of the Saints. Translated by William Caxton, edited by F.S. Ellis, vol. 3, J.M. Dent, 1900, pp. 42-45. Google Books.

Bede. Martyrologium de Natalitiis Sanctorum. In Patrologia Latina, edited by J.-P. Migne, vol. 94, col. 840A-842B, 1862. Google Books.

Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:07:34 The Nuremberg Chronicle's account of the 8th Persecution
00:13:57 Commentary
00:15:28 "St. Valentine" from Caxton's Translation of the Golden Legend
00:19:02 Commentary
00:19:59 from Bede's Martyrology
00:21:20 Commentary
00:23:37 Outro

As we enter the season of elves and Christmas spirits, we follow up on our fairy theme from last episode with a look at the famous 16th-century German hausgeist, Hinzelmann the Kobold -- but don't call him that to his face!

Today's Texts:
Keightley, Thomas. The Fairy Mythology. E.G. Bohn, 1850. Google Books.
Der vielförmige Hintzelmann oder umbständliche und merckwürdige Erzehlung von einem Geist, so sich auf dem Hause Hudemühlen, und hernach zu Estrup im Lande Lüneburg unter vielfältigen Gestalten. Leipzig, 1704. Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen.
Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. Deutsche Sagen. Berlin, 1816. Google Books.

00:00:00 Introduction
00:13:22 "Hinzelmann," translated by Thomas Keightley from the Brothers Grimm
00:48:03 Commentary
00:57:23 Mystery Word: kalamâr
00:58:52 2025 MDT Advent Calendar
01:02:33 Outro