Lucinda Bennett, the Medical Librarian at Ascension St Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, MD, publishes a regular series on Art in Medicine and The Health Humanities.It's only 1-2 pages with gorgeous images, so it won't take you long to read ... and just might enrich your life.
Modern hospitals can trace their ancestry deep into history. Across time and place, having a location to treat the sick and injured was vital to a society. How that space was built, reimagined and depicted in visual historiographies changes from era and nation, but the hospital outlived regime changes and upheaval. Today we examine the art and influence of the European Medieval hospital. As part of the teachings of the church, caring for those suffering illness or other health issues was considered a sacred duty. Therefore, the Medieval hospital was an offshoot from a cloister, cathedral or other religious building. Sites of pilgrimage offered care for those who had taken the long journey to even get there. [Above] is an image from Canterbury Cathedral, the destination of the famous pilgrims described by Chaucer, which depicts doctors at work. “Objects associated with the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket attest to the importance of Canterbury as a pilgrimage site where many sick people received miraculous cures. Becket was described as “the best physician of virtuous sick people” and the thirteenth-century windows at Canterbury provide a vivid record of miraculous cures of blindness, leprosy, drowning, madness, and the plague. At Canterbury, the saint’s blood was believed to be particularly beneficial—ampullae containing blood mixed with water were distributed at the shrine (2001.310). Canterbury seems to have been a particularly important pilgrimage destination for people suffering from bleeding disorders—perhaps because of the blood shed by Thomas at his martyrdom (17.190.520).” (The Met)
So, what could a Medieval patient expect when admitted into a hospital? Well, treatment was entwined with religion, as was most of daily life in this period. In fact, the dormitories of the sick were often modeled after the system of life associated with the clergy. “Hospitals frequently emulated monasteries. Patients were occasionally required to follow the monastic rules and some hospitals admitted 12 male patients in an obvious reference to 12 apostles. Even the hospital architecture was supposed to inspire religious devotion—the leading European hospital, the Florentine Santa Maria della Nuova, had a cross-shaped ground-plan, with the long axis serving as the male and the short as the female ward. The monastery-like hospital interior included frescoes with Biblical motives and altars adorned with Christian iconography.” (Medicine & Society)
Meal times and exercise, usually walking through the monastery gardens, would be aligned with the schedules of the monks who ran the hospital. In some instances the direction of walking would even correspond to a specific direction, as did the layout of the church itself to follow the rising and setting of the sun. The cross shape of the church and hospital, along the east-west axis, was a religious context. One would expect this would have some impact upon the patients and pilgrims within. Not only the sick would find solace in these accommodations though, another institution has its roots in the Medieval hospital - the hostel. “These charitable institutions were sometimes divided into two sections: one for the poor and sick (the hospital), and one for the travelers and pilgrims (the hostel). Often, an almsgiving service coexisted with the houses to distribute food to the poor.” (Early Medieval Hospital)
“Reception and Treatment of the Impoverished Sick in a Monastery Infirmary”
Visualizations of what went on in these wards comes to us in both stained glass windows and illuminated manuscripts. Genre painting, the subject being scenes from ordinary life, was not yet conceived. Therefore, only learned people would see images such as the scenes here. From these images we have a glimpse of the sick wards of Medieval Europe. “Archaeology has enormous potential to contribute to the history of medicine but care is needed in how we define the framework for analysis. Archaeological insight to the more academic, theoretical constructs of medieval medicine is likely to be limited, but material sources provide new perspectives on the broader empirical tradition delivered by a diverse range of practitioners – physicians (often monks and priests), surgeons, bone-setters, apothecaries, herbalists, lay-sisters and midwives. As noted above, the archaeology of medieval healing focuses on the full spectrum of healing technologies, from managing the body in order to prevent illness, through to the treatment of the sick and the preparation of the corpse for burial.” (Spirit, Mind and Body) What differs in these establishments from the modern equivalents is the scope of care, though varied it could be depending on the location and wealth of the city where it was set. Curing disease might have been a goal, but the privately owned hospitals funded by the nobility were more for respite and a place for warmth and food, according to “Three - Spirit, Mind and Body: The Archaeology of Monastic Healing.” That same article goes on to emphasize how these independent hospitals handled treatment, “Care in the infirmary was based around the concept of the liturgy and a healing regime supported by the sacraments, holy relics, devotional imagery and sacred music.”
References:
The Met - Medicine in the Middle Ages
Three - Spirit, Mind and Body: The Archaeology of Monastic Healing
Medicine and Society in the Medieval Hospital
Reprinted with the generous permission of Ms. Bennett.
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