Medicine in the Medieval North Atlantic World
Conference
13–15 May 2021 Maynooth University, Ireland
This interdisciplinary conference explores the reception and transmission of medical knowledge between and across England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Scandinavia during the medieval period, and will draw on history, literature, philosophy, science, religion, art, archaeology and manuscript studies. It will interrogate medical texts and ideas in both Latin and vernacular languages, addressing questions of translation, cultural and scientific inheritance and exchange, and historical conceptions of health and of the human being within nature.
Plenary speakers: Dr Debby Banham (University of Cambridge); Prof. Guy Geltner (Monash University); Prof. Charlotte Roberts (Durham University)
Organising committee: Dr Sarah Baccianti (Queen’s University Belfast); Dr Siobhán Barrett, Dr Bernhard Bauer & Dr Deborah Hayden (Maynooth University)
Registration
The conference will be held online on Zoom. Please email to confirm your wish to participate at: northatlanticmedicine@gmail.com
THURSDAY 13 MAY
Morning Coffee and Opening Address 09.30
Session 1: 10 – 11.30 Chair: Elizabeth Boyle
Niamh Wycherley (Maynooth University)
The placebo effect in early medieval Ireland
Marie Novotná (Charles University, Prague)
Old Norse concept of health in the perspective of body-soul relation
Victoria Krivoshchekova (Maynooth University)
Early Irish literature and the embodied mind
Online Coffee and Chats 11.30 – 12.00
Online Lunch and Chats 13.00 – 14.00
Keynote 1: 12.00 – 13.00
Debby Banham (University of Cambridge) The beginnings of English medicine: editing the oldest medical compendium from England
Chair: Siobhán Barrett
Session 2: 14.00 – 15.30
Chair: Bernhard Bauer
Eystein Thanisch (Faclair na Gàidhlig, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, University of the Highlands and Islands)
We know things through defining them: Collections of scientific definitions in Gaelic medical manuscripts from Scotland
Sharon Arbuthnot (University of Cambridge)
Medieval Irish medical texts and the vocabulary of sex and reproduction
Joseph Flahive (Royal Irish Academy)
Medical vocabulary in early mediaeval Celtic latinity
Online Coffee and Chats 15.30 – 16.00
Session 3: 16.00 – 17.00
Chair: Sarah Baccianti
Matteo Tarsi (University of Trento)
Lexical pairs in the old west Norse medical manuscript tradition
Anne Irene Risøy (University of Southern Eastern Norway)
Sick maintenance in early medieval Norwegian law
Online Drinks and Chats 17.00-18.00
FRIDAY 14 MAY
Morning Online Coffee and Chats 09.30 – 10.00
Online Coffee and Chats 11.00 – 11.30
Session 4: 11.30 – 13.00 Chair: Siobhán Barrett
David Stifter (Maynooth University)
The Old Irish healing charms in the Stowe missal and the protective spell in the Karlsruhe book cover
Laura Poggesi (University of Pavia - University of Bergamo)
Medical knowledge in two middle English manuscripts: their use and users
Emily Kesling (University of Oslo)
Female book production and medical texts in the eighth century
Online Lunch and Chats 13.00 – 14.00
Keynote 2: 10.00 – 11.00 Renehan Hall
Guy Geltner (Monash University) Public health and the environment in Galenic practice
Chair: Sarah Baccianti
Session 5: 14.00 – 15.30 Chair: Deborah Hayden
Brigid Mayes (Independent Scholar)
The Materia Medica of Gaelic physician Tadhg Ó Cuinn (1415): at the interface of theory and practice
Li Parrent (McGill University/Université d’Avignon)
Nordic landscapes as agents of pharmaceutical possibility
Conan Doyle (Independent Scholar)
Old English cures from the Ireland of Solinus and Bede
Online Coffee and Chats 15.30 – 16.00
Session 6: 16.00 – 17.30
Chair: Christina Lee
Ranke de Vries (St. Francis Xavier University)
Afflictions of the head in the Acallam na Senórach
Christine Voth (Independent Scholar)
The Veronica and female healing authority in medieval England
Elisa Ramazzina (Queen’s University Belfast)
“And bathis are goode to be visid in tyme of colde”: Therapeutic baths in medieval English medicine
Online Drinks and Chats 17.30-18.30
SATURDAY 15 MAY
Morning Online Coffee and Chats 09.30 – 10.00
Online Coffee and Chats 11.00 – 11.30
Session 7: 11.30 – 13.00
Chair: Guy Geltner
Axel Christophersen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), University Museum, Trondheim, Norway)
Were they all pigs? From individual to public health care in medieval Trondheim, Norway
Ole Georg Moseng (University of Southeast Norway) & Erik Opsahl (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU))
Medieval environmental responsibility
Catrin Fear (University of Nottingham)
Poster presentation: The impact of lead on health in medieval Britain: Did they know it was poisonous?
Keynote 3: 10.00 – 11.00
Charlotte Roberts (Durham University) Palaeopathology: what can it tell us about the history of disease and medicine?
Chair: Deborah Hayden
Online Lunch and Chats 13.00 – 14.00
Session 8: 14.00 – 15.30
Chair: Elisa Ramazzina
Anna Matheson (Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance, Université de Tours)
How to Identify Fools: Instructions from a Middle Irish legal commentary
Gwendolyne Knight (Stockholm University)
Locating the mind with monsters in early English medicine
Christina Lee (School of English, University of Nottingham)
Singing to sanity
Concluding Remarks 15.30 – 16.00