For a moment we forget the idea that the Middle Ages was only an era of ignorance and superstition. New research tells us a completely different story: the people of a thousand years ago were attentive observers of nature and capable of developing remedies based on herbs, salts, essential oils and … even lizards.
This is what emerges from the Corpus of Early Medieval Latin Medicine project, a digital collection edited by a group of scholars led by the historic Meg Leja of the University of Binghamton. Thanks to a job that lasted over two years, the researchers have re -examined dozens of ancient medical texts, many handwriters in the margins of grammar books or prayers. A hidden treasure that gives us a fascinating vision of a more scientific era than we thought, as Leja explained to Science Daily:
The people of the time were looking for schemes, observed nature and noted everything that could serve to treat the body. They were not anti-scientific at all.
And in fact, many of the remedies described in these manuscripts play us incredibly familiar.
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Do you have a headache? In the ninth century there is a chopped fishing core cream and pink oil directly on the forehead. Does it seem like a witch potion? Still, a 2017 study confirms that pink oil can alleviate pain from migraine. The chopped hazel, however, remains a mystery …
For the hair, however, there was all a beauty routine worthy of today’s influencers: before was washed the scalp with herbs and vinegar rooms (probably similar to apple cider vinegar), to fight parasites. Still today the vinegar is used against dandruff, even if science is not entirely convinced of its dermatological effectiveness.
But the most curious part comes later: to obtain strong and healthy hair, the treatment was completed with an ointment based on oils and “ash of burnt green lizards”. A sort of primitive hair mask that, however bizarre, is part of the same logic of DIY that we see today online. Lizard aside, fortunately.
And no, it is no coincidence: many of these medieval practices are returning to fashion as “natural” remedies, shared today on Instagram and Tiktok by millions of users.
Obviously, not all the remedies of the time would hold to the judgment of modern science. Some shave the magic ritual, such as the recommendation made to pregnant women to tie down feathers in the left leg to encourage a peaceful birth. Yet, even behind these beliefs, a very concrete desire is hidden: finding relief, preventing pain, improving health with what nature offered.
The greatest merit of this new research, in fact, is precisely this: to restore dignity to ancient knowledge, rooted in the earth, made of direct observation and empirical experimentation, even in the absence of modern scientific tools. They were not superstitious: they were simply looking for answers.
Today, thanks to the work of Leja and its team, we have access to this immense heritage of knowledge: the Corpus of Early Medieval Latin Medicine is available online and is continuously updated with new translations. An invitation to rediscover how, already a thousand years ago, one could live more naturally, more aware … and perhaps even healthier.
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