An examination of three interpretations of the most universally acknowledged piece of rhetoric in the history of the West, The Sermon on the Mount. The three interpretations examined, from the perspectives of faith and language, are: St Augustine, from the Latin and Catholic tradition; St John Chrysostom, the Greek and Orthodox tradition; and Martin Luther, the Reformation and Protestant tradition. Together and yet separately, they illuminate both the Sermon and the speaker for anyone who still takes the challenge of faith, and language, seriously.

In this comprehensive and stimulating volume, the history of medicine is approached from a variety of perspectives to develop a well-rounded, objective overview. Historians examine the effects of society on medicine and of medicine on society and trace transformations in the the thought and practices of the medical and allied professions. History of Medicine explores the practice and philosophy of medicine--as it existed in ancient Greece and the Middle Ages, shedding light on the religion, politics, and social attitudes of those periods and as it existed until very recently in the United States. This highly readable book provides a wealth of information on the history of several significant social movements in which the medical profession has played a dominant role in influencing family life and values, including the dispensation of knowledge about birth control, women’s access to abortion, and the advent of pediatric medicine and the well baby movement. Chapters also examine the failure of the medical profession to consider the historical context of diseases and treatments in understanding diseases as they exist today and the conflict between doctors and professional historians as to the accuracy and importance of the existing history of medicine.

Scholars have made conflicting claims for Byzantine hospitals as medical institutions and as the forebears of the modern hospital. In this study is the first systematic examination of the evidence of the xenôn texts, or Xenonika, on which all such claims must in part rest. These texts, compiled broadly between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, are also transcribed or edited, with the exception of the combined texts of Romanos and Theophilos that, the study proposes, were originally a single manual and teaching work for doctors, probably based on xenôn practice. A schema of their combined chapter headings sets out the unified structure of this text. A short handlist briefly describes the principal manuscripts referred to throughout the study. The introduction briefly examines our evidence for the xenônes from the early centuries of the East Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Chapter 3 examines the texts in xenon medical practice and compares them to some other medical manuals and remedy texts of the Late period and to their structures. The xenôn-ascribed texts are discussed one by one in chapters 4–8; the concluding chapter 9 draw together the common, as well as the divergent, aspects of each text and looks to the comparative evidence for hospital medical practice of the time in the West.

Visualizing Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200-1550 addresses fundamental questions about the interplay of visual and verbal communication in medieval medicine, pharmacy, and natural history. Analyzing images in works as diverse as herbals, jewellery, surgery manuals, lay health guides, cinquecento paintings, manuscripts of Pliny's Natural History, and Leonardo's notebooks, the essays ask: What counts as medical illustration in the Middle Ages? What purposes and audiences do these illustrations serve? How do images of natural objects, observed phenomena, and theoretical concepts amplify texts and convey complex cultural attitudes? Why do we regard some of these images as medieval productions while other exactly contemporary images strike us as typically early modern in character?

Fresh examinations of the role of medicinal plants in medieval thought and practice and how they contributed to broader ideas concerning the body, religion and identity. The important and ever-shifting role of medicinal plants in medieval science, art, culture, and thought, both in the Latin Western medical tradition and in Byzantine and medieval Arabic medicine, is the focus of this new collection. Following a general introduction and a background chapter on Late Antique and medieval theories of wellness and therapy, in-depth essays treat such wide-ranging topics as medicine and astrology, charms and magical remedies, herbal glossaries, illuminated medical manuscripts, women's reproductive medicine, dietary cooking, gardens in social and political context, and recreated medieval gardens. They make a significant contribution to our understanding ofthe place of medicinal plants in medieval thought and practice, and thus lead to a greater appreciation of how medieval theories and therapies from diverse places developed in continuously evolving and cross-pollinating strands, and, in turn, how they contributed to broader ideas concerning the body, religion, identity, and the human relationship with the natural world. Contributors: MARIA AMALIA D'ARONCO, PETER DENDLE, EXPIRACION GARCIA SANCHEZ, PETER MURRAY JONES, GEORGE R. KEISER, DEIRDRE LARKIN, MARIJANE OSBORN, PHILIP G. RUSCHE, TERENCE SCULLY, ALAIN TOUWAIDE, LINDA EHRSAM VOIGTS

First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.