Nancy Siraisi’s Medieval & Early Renaissance Medicine is an introductory survey of the state of the medical professions and education from approximately the 8th to the 15th century. She does a good job covering the foundation of Western medicine, the ancient Greek writings of Galen and Hippocrates and others, in the first chapter. As this made up the majority of what passed for “medical knowledge” during the time in question it one of the most important sections of the book. With the foundation laid she looks at the medical practitioners and the conditions that they worked under, how they were educated, what they knew (or thought they knew) about anatomy and physiology, the diseases they recognized and how they treated them, surgeons and surgery.

The topics are well covered but I was surprised by what was left out. Early on Siraisi states that she will not cover the origin of hospitals. From a medieval perspective this is somewhat understandable however for someone with a twenty first century perspective this is unacceptable. We cannot think of medical care without thinking of hospitals. Even though that was not their primary purpose in medieval times they did evolve into it and their origins need to be covered. Normally I feel religion is given to much attention is medieval histories but here I feel just the opposite. Siraisi mentions restrictions placed on the the clergy to prevent them from performing some medical procedures but completely overlooks several religious orders that were founded in the era she covers simply to tend to ill. Telling of the 11th century Knights Hospitaller, for one example, would have helped fill the hole in the coverage of the eras medical practices.

Although I can’t give thing book my unqualified recommendation it is certainly worth reading if it is all that is available. The book contains many illustrations taken from period medical texts that would have be very helpful. Unfortunately I read the Kindle edition and the illustrations were so poorly reproduced that it rendered them worthless. The bibliography is very helpful, Siraisi has limited the list to English translations of the Latin texts she researched, acknowledging the limited ability of most undergraduate students to read Latin. Most of my reservations have already been stated, there are holes in its coverage. It is also 22 years old as I write this and although our knowledge of medieval medical practices does not change rapidly there will be newer ideas in more recent volumes. ( )