CEMERS Lecture Series: "'Another one of the most holsome preservatives agaynst the plague': The Long Lives of Black Death Plague Remedies"

The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and co-sponsor the History Department invites you to join us on Wednesday, April 17th at 3:00 pm in the IASH Conference Room, LN 1106 for the lecture on “‘Another one of the most holsome preservatives agaynst the plague’: The Long Lives of Black Death Plague Remedies”with guest speaker Lori Jones, Adjunct Research Professor, Department of History, Carleton University. Part-time Professor, Department of History, University of Ottawa

As reports of plague spread across Europe in the mid-14th century, physicians and other health providers turned to traditional medical theories and remedies. Most believed that longstanding preventative and curative therapies would be sufficient against the epidemic. Lifestyle advice, environmental management, phlebotomy, lists of foods to be avoided, lancing buboes, and a wide range of herbal remedies were all recommended, alongside prayer and penance. By the 16th century, some writers offered more eclectic preventives containing chemicals such as vitriol, quicksilver, mercury, saltpetre, and antimony, but medieval remedies continued to be endorsed into the 18th century, contributing to a general sense that plague medicine changed very little across the four centuries of the Second Plague Pandemic in Europe. But which particular remedies stood the test of time? This presentation uses the late-16th–century Wellcome MS 674 as a window onto the long lives of Black Death plague remedies. This manuscript’s eccentric reworking of medieval medical texts recast pre-Reformation medicine in a newer, Protestant light, raising questions about how medieval plague remedies fared in the turbulent decades of the 16th and 17th centuries, and beyond. By tracing some of the most popular remedies, I aim to show how plague medicine evolved in tune with social change.

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