Curious Cures Reading List

After you've visited the Curious Cures exhibition you can explore a selection of these titles at your leisure in our reading nook, or pick up a copy to take home from our shop. The more unusual titles can be found within our collection and are available to view if you become a member of the library. Find out how to join here.

Pre-book your free exhibition tickets here.

Medieval Medicine: Its Mysteries and Science, Toni Mount, ISBN: 9781445655420 

Conjuring up a time when butchers and executioners knew more about anatomy than university-trained physicians, the phrase ‘medieval medicine’ sounds horrific to those of us with modern ideas on hygiene, instant pain relief and effective treatments. In those days no one could allay the dread of plague or the many other horrible diseases we have now forgotten. However, the medieval medical profession provided patients with everything from cosmetic procedures and dietary advice to life-saving surgeries and post-operative antibiotics. 
 
Intriguingly, alongside such expertise, some still believed that unicorns, dragons and elephants supplied vital medical ingredients and that horoscopes could predict the sex of unborn babies. This book explores the labyrinth of strange ideas and unlikely remedies that make up the weird, wonderful and occasionally beneficial world of medieval medicine. 

The Mystery of Exploding Teeth and other Curiosities from the History of Medicine, Thomas Morris, ISBN: 9780552175456 

This fascinating collection of historical curiosities explores some of the strangest cases that have perplexed doctors across the world. We also hear of the weird, often hilarious remedies employed by physicians of yore – from crow’s vomit to port-wine enemas – the hazards of such everyday objects as cucumbers and false teeth, and miraculous recovery from apparently terminal injuries. Take a tour of some of the funniest, strangest and most wince-inducing corners of medical history. 

Crypt : Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond by Alice Roberts ISBN: 9781398519251 

The history of the Middle Ages is typically the story of the rich and powerful, but archaeology represents another way of interrogating our history. By using cutting-edge science to examine human remains and burials, it is possible to gain a new understanding of the past – one that is more intimate and inclusive than ever before. 
 
The seven stories in Crypt are not comforting tales. We meet the patients at one of the earliest hospitals in England and the victims of the St Brice’s Day Massacre. We see a society struggling to make sense of disease, disability and death, as incurable epidemics sweep through medieval Europe. Crypt is packed with thrilling scientific discoveries that challenge what we thought we knew about history. 

The Great Plague: When death came to Cambridge, Evelyn Lord, ISBN:9780300270259 

In this intimate history of the extraordinary Black Plague pandemic that swept through the British Isles in 1665, Evelyn Lord focuses on the plague’s effects on smaller towns, where every death was a singular blow affecting the entire community. Lord’s fascinating reconstruction of life during plague times presents the personal experiences of a wide range of individuals, from historical notables Samuel Pepys and Isaac Newton to common folk who tilled the land and ran the shops. She brings this dark era to vivid life through stories of loss and survival from those who grieved, those who fled, and those who hid to await their fate. 

Company of Liars, Karen Maitland, ISBN:9780141031910 

The year is 1348 and the first plague victim has reached English shores. Panic erupts around the country and a small band of travellers comes together to outrun the deadly disease, unaware that something far more deadly is, in fact, travelling with them. The ill-assorted company – a scarred trader in holy relics, a conjurer, two musicians, a healer and a deformed storyteller – are all concealing secrets and lies. 
 
And at their heart is the strange, cold child – Narigorm – who reads the runes. But as law and order breaks down across the country and the battle for survival becomes ever more fierce, Narigorm mercilessly compels each of her fellow travellers to reveal the truth... and each in turn is driven to a cruel and unnatural death. 

The Story of the Human Body, Daniel Lieberman, ISBN:9780141399959 

Never have we been so healthy and long-lived, but never, too, have we been so prone to a slew of problems that were, until recently, rare or unknown, from asthma, to diabetes, to – scariest of all – overpopulation. The Story of the Human Body asks how our bodies got to be the way they are, and considers how that evolutionary history – both ancient and recent – can help us evaluate how we use our bodies. 

Old English Medical Remedies: Mandrake, Wormwood and Raven’s Eye, Sinead Spearing, ISBN:9781526711700 

Old English Medical Remedies explores the herbal efficacy of these ancient remedies whilst evaluating the supernatural, magical elements and suggests these provide a powerful psychological narrative, revealing an approach to healthcare far more sophisticated than hitherto believed. All the while, the voices of the wise women who created and used these remedies are brought to life, after centuries of demonisation by the Church. 

Measly Middle Ages, Terry Deary, ISBN:9780702311260 

Discover all the foul facts about the Measly Middle Ages with history's most horrible headlines. All the facts about the Measly Middle Ages are ready to uncover, including: why chickens had their bottoms shaved, a genuine jester's joke and what ten-year-old treacle was used for. Fully illustrated throughout and packed with horrible stories – with all the horribly hilarious bits included.  

Medieval Bodies, Jack Hartnell, ISBN:9781781256800 

Just like us, medieval men and women worried about growing old, got blisters and indigestion, fell in love and had children. And yet their lives were full of miraculous and richly metaphorical experiences radically different to our own, unfolding in a world where deadly wounds might be healed overnight by divine intervention, or the heart of a king, plucked from his corpse, could be held aloft as a powerful symbol of political rule. 
 
In this richly-illustrated and unusual history, Jack Hartnell uncovers the fascinating ways in which people thought about, explored and experienced their physical selves in the Middle Ages, from Constantinople to Cairo and Canterbury. Unfolding like a medieval pageant, and filled with saints, soldiers, caliphs, queens, monks and monstrous beasts, it throws light on the medieval body from head to toe – revealing the surprisingly sophisticated medical knowledge of the time in the process. Bringing together medicine, art, music, politics, philosophy and social history, there is no better guide to what life was really like for the men and women who lived and died in the Middle Ages. 

The Art of Anatomy, Taylor McCall, ISBN:9781789146813  

This book is the first modern history of medieval European anatomical images. Richly illustrated, it explores the many ways in which medieval surgeons, doctors, monks and artists understood and depicted human anatomy. Taylor McCall refutes the common misconception that Renaissance artists and anatomists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius were the ‘fathers’ of anatomy, and the first to perform scientific human dissection; on the contrary, she proves these Renaissance figures drew upon centuries of visual and written in their work. 

Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours, Noga Arikha, ISBN: 9780060731175  

Physicians in Ancient Greece believed four humours flowed within the human body – blood, phlegm, black bile, and choler – determining a person's health, mood, and character. Not until the seventeenth century would a more complex view of the anatomy begin to emerge. But by then humoural theory had already become deeply ingrained in Western language and thought – and endures to this day in surprising ways. 
 
Interweaving the histories of medicine, science, psychology, and philosophy, Passions and Tempers explores the uncanny persistence of these variable, invisible fluids. It will change how we view our physical, mental, and emotional selves. 

Medieval Medicine: The Art of Healing, from Head to Toe, Luke Demaitre, ISBN:9780275984854 

This unique examination of medieval medicine as detailed in physicians' manuals of the period reveals a more sophisticated approach to the medical arts than expected for the time. Far from the primitive and barbaric practices the Middle Ages may conjure up in our minds, doctors during that time combined knowledge, tradition, innovation, and intuition to create a humane, holistic approach to understanding and treating every known disease. In fact, a singularly authoritative medical source of the period, Lily of Medicine, continued to provide crucial study for students and practitioners of medicine almost four centuries after its completion in 1305. 

The Medicine of the Friars in Medieval England, Peter Murray Jones, ISBN: 9781914049231  

Drawing upon a surprising wealth of evidence found in surviving manuscripts, this book restores friars to their rightful place in the history of English healthcare. Friars are often overlooked in the picture of healthcare in late medieval England. Physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, barbers, midwives – these are the people we think of immediately as agents of healing, whilst we identify university teachers as authorities on medical writings. 
 
Yet from their first appearance in England in the 1220s to the dispersal of the friaries in the 1530s, four orders of friars were active as healers of every type. Their care extended beyond the circle of their own brethren: patients included royalty, nobles and bishops, and they also provided charitable aid and relief to the poor. They wrote about medicine too. 
 
This book restores friars to their rightful place in the history of English health care, exploring the complex, productive entanglement between care of the soul and healing of the body, in both theoretical and practical terms.  

Medieval Medicine: A Reader, edited by Faith Wallis, ISBN:9781442601031 

Medical knowledge and practice changed profoundly during the medieval period. In this collection of over 100 primary sources, many translated for the first time, Faith Wallis reveals the dynamic world of medicine in the Middle Ages that has been largely unavailable to students and scholars.  

The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine, edited and translated by Monica H. Green, ISBN: 9780812218084 

The Trotula was the most influential compendium of women's medicine in medieval Europe. Scholarly debate has long focused on the traditional attribution of the work to the mysterious Trotula, said to have been the first female professor of medicine in 11th or 12th century Salerno, just south of Naples, then the leading centre of medical learning in Europe. Yet as Monica H. Green reveals in her introduction to the first English translation ever based upon a medieval form of the text, The Trotula is not a single treatise but an ensemble of three independent works, each by a different author. To varying degrees, these three works reflect the synthesis of indigenous practices of southern Italians with the new theories, practices, and medicinal substances coming out of the Arabic world. Green here presents a complete English translation of the so-called standardised Trotula ensemble, a composite form of the texts that was produced in the mid-13th century and circulated widely in learned circles. 

Visualizing Household Health: Medieval Women, Art and Knowledge in the Régime du corps, Jennifer Borland, ISBN: 9780271093468  

In 1256, the countess of Provence, Beatrice of Savoy, enlisted her personal physician to create a health handbook to share with her daughters. Written in French and known as the Régime du corps, this health guide would become popular and influential, with nearly 70 surviving copies made over the next 200 years and translations in at least four other languages. In Visualizing Household Health, art historian Jennifer Borland uses the Régime to show how gender and healthcare converged within the medieval household. 

The Cadfael Chronicles, Ellis Peters, starting with A Morbid Taste for Bones, ISBN: 9780751543827  

In 1137 the ambitious head of Shrewsbury Abbey has decided to acquire the remains of Saint Winifred for his Benedictine order. Brother Cadfael is part of the expedition sent to her final resting place in Wales, where they find the villagers passionately divided by the Benedictine's offer for the Saint's relics. Canny, wise and all too worldly, Cadfael isn't surprised when this taste for bones leads to bloody murder. 
 
The leading opponent to moving the grave has been shot dead with a mysterious arrow, and some say Winifred herself dealt the blow. Brother Cadfael knows that a carnal hand did the killings, but he doesn't know that his plan to unearth a murderer may dig up a case of love and justice, where the wages of sin may be scandal – or his own ruin. 

Chronicles of Matthew Bartholomew, Susanna Gregory, starting with A Plague on You’re your Houses, ISBN: 9780751568028   

Matthew Bartholomew, unorthodox but effective physician to Michaelhouse College in medieval Cambridge, is as worried as anyone about the pestilence that is ravaging Europe and seems to be approaching England. But he is distracted by the sudden and inexplicable death of the Master of Michaelhouse – a death the University authorities do not want investigated. 
 
Matthew is determined to get to the truth, leading him into a tangle of lies and intrigue that cause him to question the innocence of his closest friends – and even his family – just as the Black Death finally arrives... 

The Black Death: The Intimate Story of a Village in Crisis, 1345-1350, John Hatcher, ISBN:9780753823071 

How the people of a typical English village lived and died in the worst epidemic in history. The Black Death remains the greatest disaster to befall humanity, killing about half the population of the planet in the 14th century. John Hatcher recreates everyday medieval life in a parish in Suffolk, from which an exceptional number of documents survive. 
 
This enables us to view events through the eyes of its residents, revealing in unique detail what it was like to live and die in these terrifying times. With scrupulous attention to historical accuracy, John Hatcher describes what the parishioners experienced, what they knew and what they believed. His narrative is peopled with characters developed from the villagers named in the actual town records and a series of dramatic scenes portray how contemporaries must have experienced the momentous events. 

Revolting Remedies from the Middle Ages, Daniel Wakelin, ISBN: 9781851244768 

For a zitty face: take urine eight days old and heat it over the fire; wash your face with it morning and night. In late medieval England, ordinary people, apothecaries and physicians gathered up practical medical tips for everyday use. 
 
While some were sensible herbal cures, many were weird and wonderful. This book selects some of the most revolting or remarkable remedies from medieval manuscripts in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. There are embarrassing ailments and painful procedures, icky ingredients and bizarre beliefs.