THE BEST MEDICINE? MEDICAL EDUCATION, PRACTICE, AND METAPHOR IN JOHN OF SALISBURY'S POLICRATICUS AND METALOGICON Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The English churchman and author John of Salisbury (1115/1120-1180) has been widely recognized for his interest in the human body and its pathologies as reflected in the organic metaphor for the political community that he elaborates extensively in Books 5 and 6 of his Policraticus. Far less often have scholars devoted attention to numerous other manifestations of John's treatment of the medical profession in his writings, such as Policraticus 2.29 (where he discusses at length the theory and practice of medicine) and Metalogicon 1.4 (where he surveys the state of medical learning in his times). The article seeks to remedy this lacuna by examining the full range of John's discussions of medicine in these two works and setting them in the context of the state of medical knowledge during the middle of the twelfth century. In particular, we explore the possible sources of his physiological, pathological, anatomical, and therapeutic views in connection with medical writings and compilations produced in southern Italy that circulated widely in John's intellectual milieu of twelfth-century England. We aim to reconstruct John's efforts to integrate medical theory and practice into the broader contours of his political, moral, and pedagogical theories.

published proceedings

  • VIATOR: MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE STUDIES, VOL 42, NO 1

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Shogimen, T., & Nederman, C. J.

citation count

  • 0

complete list of authors

  • Shogimen, Takashi||Nederman, Cary J

publication date

  • January 2011