Gruesome medieval remedies revealed in resurfaced manuscripts

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While nowadays you might have some chicken soup to fight a cold, a new project unearthing manuscripts up to 1,000 years old reveals the bizarre medical remedies recommended by those in the medieval era.

The violence of medieval society is detailed in the recipes, from gruesome animal-derived treatments to advice on how to set broken bones or determine whether a skull has been fractured.

The UK’s Cambridge University Library has launched the two-year project to digitize, catalog and conserve the more than 180 medieval manuscripts containing approximately 8,000 unedited, handwritten medical recipes.

Most of the manuscripts date to the 14th or 15th centuries, with the oldest being 1,000 years old. Some are simple pocketbooks designed to be carried around and could have been made by medical practitioners themselves, according to a news release from the University of Cambridge Wednesday.

The recipes typically comprise of a short series of simple instructions, similar to a modern-day prescription or cookery book.

In the texts, there are common ingredients that we are familiar with today, including herbs like sage, rosemary, thyme and mint, as well as spices such as cumin, pepper and ginger.

However, there are also some questionable ones, particularly those deriving from Click here to read the rest of this article

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