Linguistic Orphan: Medical Literacy in Medieval England and the Erasure Of Anglo-Saxon Medical Knowledge

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dc.contributor.advisorBianchini, Jannaen_US
dc.contributor.authorWillis, Margot Rochelleen_US
dc.contributor.departmentHistoryen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2019-02-05T06:36:45Z
dc.date.available2019-02-05T06:36:45Z
dc.date.issued2018en_US
dc.description.abstractThis thesis seeks to answer the question of why medieval physicians “forgot” efficacious medical treatments developed by the Anglo-Saxons and how Anglo-Saxon medical texts fell into obscurity. This thesis is largely based on the 2015 study of Freya Harrison et al., which replicated a tenth-century Anglo-Saxon eyesalve and found that it produced antistaphylococcal activity similar to that of modern antibiotics. Following an examination of the historiography, primary texts, and historical context, this thesis concludes that Anglo-Saxon medical texts, regardless of what useful remedies they contained, were forgotten primarily due to reasons of language: the obsolescence of Old English following the Norman Conquest, and the dominance of Latin in the University-based medical schools in medieval Europe.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/o7nz-n7mj
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/21710
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledMedieval historyen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledMedicineen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledAnglo-Saxonen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledBald's Leechbooken_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledEnglanden_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledleechcraften_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledMedieval medicineen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledmedieval universitiesen_US
dc.titleLinguistic Orphan: Medical Literacy in Medieval England and the Erasure Of Anglo-Saxon Medical Knowledgeen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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