Elma Brenner (Wellcome Collection), 'Distilling nature and harnessing wellness in late medieval French manuscripts'
Abstract:
This paper addresses one category of remedy among the broader spectrum of medical treatments that were fabricated by humans from natural ingredients in later medieval Europe. It focuses on distilled medicinal waters that were often described as ‘artificial’, and were gathered together, read and transmitted in manuscript volumes as well as, from the later fifteenth century, printed books. After reflecting on the popularity and general characteristics of manuscript collections of medicinal and cosmetic remedies, the talk examines a small number of French vernacular manuscripts, now held at Wellcome Collection, that contain instructions for making distilled waters. It considers how the remedies are organised and occasionally illustrated, as well as marginalia and other signs that they were read by contemporaries. It uses the materiality of the manuscript itself as a starting point for reflecting on the multiple forms of matter involved in the production of medicinal waters – from materia medica, to specialised vessels and other apparatus, to the human body that activated the apparatus and ingredients. Attention is also paid to the contribution of distilled waters to the broader efforts of late medieval practitioners and patients to preserve health and harness wellness.
Biography:
Dr Elma Brenner is a Research Development Specialist at Wellcome Collection, London, UK, and an associate member of the Centre de recherches archéologiques et historiques anciennes et médiévales at the University of Caen, France (UMR 6273 – CNRS). Her research explores health, religious culture and the history of the book in medieval France and England. Among her publications are Memory and Commemoration in Medieval Culture (co-edited with Meredith Cohen and Mary Franklin-Brown, 2013), Society and Culture in Medieval Rouen, 911–1300 (co-edited with Leonie V. Hicks, 2013), Leprosy and Charity in Medieval Rouen (2015) and Leprosy and Identity in the Middle Ages: From England to the Mediterranean (co-edited with François-Olivier Touati, 2021). She is Co-Editor of Social History of Medicine.