Medicine and Magic

This collective volume outlines the history of medieval medicine as a cross-cultural phenomenon in the Mediterranean region. The contributors adopt an interdisciplinary approach, drawing upon archaeological findings in the study, editing, and comparison of texts. The volume highlights the cultural interaction among Byzantine, Jewish, Islamicate, and Latin medical traditions. Situated within diverse contexts, Drugs in the Medieval Mediterranean reveals how pharmacy and medicine intersected with philosophy, magic, cuisine, religion, alchemy, and politics. By focusing equal attention on the linguistic and medical traditions of the texts, the authors trace and analyse the transmission of scientific knowledge and the trade in medicinal substances across the full breadth of the medieval Mediterranean.

This study examines the experience of single mothers in Morocco during pregnancy and childbirth, highlighting the challenges they face due to sociocultural and religious norms. While numerous studies have explored various aspects of maternal health in Morocco—such as postpartum depression, and access to healthcare—few have focused on the impact of religion on childbirth practices, particularly for single mothers. Often regarded as bearing impure bodies and being sinful, these women face significant stigma. This research aims to understand how they experience pregnancy and childbirth in this context by exploring their journeys, the obstacles they encounter, and the strategies they adopt to navigate a societal environment that marginalizes them.

J. Kellens et C. Redard, L’Avesta - le récitatif liturgique sacré des zoroastriens, Paris [Belles Lettres - Docet Omnia 7], 2021.

Disponible en open access: https://books.openedition.org/lesbelleslettres/24943

Abstract: Les religions du monde contemporain se réfèrent presque toutes à un livre que leurs fidèles considèrent comme sacré. L’Avesta, qui servit dans les communautés zoroastriennes d’Iran, d’Inde et dans leur diaspora, semble appartenir cet ensemble, en témoignant des origines de la religion préislamique des tribus iraniennes.
Quelque chose toutefois exige une attention plus insistante. Presque toujours abordé comme l’expression théorique d’une doctrine religieuse ou le miroir d’une histoire et d’une géographie révolues, l’Avesta est aussi une machine littéraire dont il faut démonter les rouages. C’est-à-dire analyser avec précision son mode de transmission, les particularités de structure et les intentions liturgiques qui ont présidé aux assemblages textuels.
Telle est l’ambition de ce livre retraçant l’évolution des recherches depuis les origines jusqu’aux avancées du XXIe siècle, qui ont révolutionné les thèses couramment admises jusqu’alors.

A master thesis discussing the notions of body and disease, as they are presented in the Mesopotamian healing prescriptions collected in the genre of medical compendia referred to as the "therapeutic texts" by the assyriologists. An attempt to reach at least some level of the bodily experience of a dead culture. The thesis focuses on prescriptions for fevers, with regard to general context.

Traversant l'ensemble de la tradition zoroastrienne, la Dēn (avestique daēnā « vision ») est une notion polysémique qui peut désigner soit une divinité aurorale psychopompe, soit la doctrine religieuse, soit la parole sacrée de l'Avesta. Combinant ces différentes acceptions, le passage du Dēnkard III.225, commenté ici pour la première fois, apporte non seulement la preuve directe d'une continuité du sens originel de « vision » entre l'Avesta et sa strate exégétique en moyen-perse (pehlevi), mais également celle du développement de spéculations métaphysiques (avec un arrière-plan néoplatonicien) sur la vision transcendantale à laquelle accède le mage. Des sources matérielles (iconographiques et épigraphiques) contribuent elles aussi à mettre en évidence que la Dēn est l'entité divine que l'on regarde les yeux dans les yeux.

The Zoroastrian Vision, Straigth in the Eyes. Commentary on the Dēn according to Dēnkard III.225
In the Zoroastrian tradition, the Dēn (Avestan daēnā "vision") is a polysemic notion that denotes either an auroral psychopompic deity, or the religious doctrine, or again the sacred word of the Avesta. Passage 225 of the Dēnkard III, commented here for the first time, combines these different concepts, thereby not only bringing direct proof for the continuity of the word's original meaning-"vision"-between the Avestan textual layer and the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) exegetic layer, but also testifying to the development of metaphysical speculation (with a neo-platonic backdrop) concerning the transcendental vision acquired by the magi. Material sources (iconographic as well as epigraphic) also contribute to highlighting the notion that the Dēn is the divine entity that one looks at straight in the eyes.

In this third and final workshop we will focus particularly on the religious roles of the “mother” in the child’s life after the perinatal phase and until adulthood, as well as on the less fortunate cases in which the offspring dies before becoming adult. In this regard, the distinction made by Susan Starr Sered (1994) between “womAn as symbol” (e.g., images of goddesses and normative stereotypes created by male religious authorities) and “womEn as agents” (real practice, historical mothers), and the distinction made by Adrienne Rich (1976) between “Motherhood as institution” and “Motherhood as experience” (women’s experience of and relation to her own reproductive capacities) are particularly relevant here. In fact, evidence suggests a widespread gap between normative representation and actual practice. While the first two workshops dealt with physiological functions (pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding) that only a woman – mother-to-be or newly mother – can perform, this third workshop stresses that the rearing of a child shifts the focus from biology to society. Therefore, it is necessary to define what “mother” is. In order to do so, we use Sara Ruddick’s articulation of the three demands of maternal thinking –– preservation, growth, and social acceptance –– that are met by the three practices of preservative love, nurturance, and training (Ruddick 1989:17). Preservation has to be understood as the most compelling demand. As Ruddick suggests, “mother” is better understood as a verb (to mother) rather than as a feminine substantive. A “mother” is anyone who engages in maternal practice and makes this a central part of their life. Mother can, thus, be gender-inclusive.

In the Middle Ages, although it was often the wet nurses who breastfed children, there were also a lot of mothers that spent their first years of motherhood nursing their babies. Because the woman milk is fundamental for toddlers, great attention was paid to the health of both the mothers and the wet nurses in case there were specific problems, like the absence of milk or diseases that prevented breastfeeding. In these cases, women often resorted to remedies offered by the cult of saint (like Saint Anne) or by magic (with the use of potions, plants etc.) to obtain the healing and/or the abundance of milk. The margin between the two domains was also, sometimes, very subtle.
In this paper, I will analyse the complex system of cults, rituals and practices that during the High and Late Middle Ages were used to heal diseases linked to breastfeeding. I will take into consideration hagiographical and literary sources that can help us to speculate on the culture in which those rituals took place. For instance, the books of Hildegard of Bingen, particularly the Causae et curae, should be helpful.
I will answer to some questions, like: which were the diffusion and type of diseases connected to breastfeed? which were the main cults connected to their healing? which were the rituals and the practises performed in the shrines? how medicine and religion, or religious rites and magic, interacted?

How did ancient Iranian religion represent the wolf? Between the mythological data, the realities of the agro-pastoral world, and the symbolism of exegetical tradition, Late Antique Zoroastrianism considered the wolf as primarily a species to kill. In reality, much more than the Canis lupus hides behind the word 'wolf ' (Middle Persian gurg), including most nocturnal predators but also devastating illnesses, a monster whom the Savior will destroy at the end of time, and finally heretics who renounce or deform the Good Religion. However, this negative image is nuanced by the recognition of the strong ties between the she-wolf and wolf cubs, both in texts where the protective qualities of this large predator are evoked, and in iconography, namely magic seals, where one finds the image of the nourishing she-wolf, perhaps connected to perinatal magic.

Secondo il pensiero egiziano, le diverse malattie che colpivano l'uomo erano determinate da cause sia naturali che sovrannaturali. In genere, ferite come le fratture o le lussazioni potevano essere spiegate in termini meccanici, giacché l’origine di tali affezioni era solitamente evidente. D'altro canto, se un paziente lamentava sintomi generici, come febbre, spossatezza o malessere generale, l'esame clinico diveniva più ostico. Il principio patogeno che non si era in grado di spiegare era, perciò, da riferirsi inevitabilmente alla potenza di un agente sovrannaturale.
Quest'ultimo s'insinuava nel corpo dall'esterno e poteva essere combattuto con la sola arma idonea: la magia. I medici potevano ingaggiare una vera e propria lotta nel tentativo di scacciare queste entità, che le fonti permettono di distinguere principalmente in due gruppi: dèi, demoni e spiriti dei defunti da un lato, gli incantesimi ostili ad opera di un nemico dall'altro.
Lungi dal tenere in minor conto queste cause rispetto a quelle propriamente naturali, i medici egiziani individuarono negli agenti patogeni sovrannaturali una struttura cognitiva peculiare, entro la quale agire e combattere le malattie empiricamente inspiegabili.
In questa sede, ci si propone di analizzare specificamente i principi patogeni d'origine sovrannaturale, facendo riferimento alle principali fonti testuali ed epigrafiche in nostro possesso: i papiri medici e magico-medici. Questi ultimi iniziano ad apparire nel Medio Regno, sebbene la maggior parte delle copie conservate sia databile al Nuovo Regno.
Si cercherà, altresì, di definire i tratti di queste entità nemiche, tentando anche di comprenderne il campo d'azione e se, effettivamente, fossero riconducibili alle sole malattie non spiegabili in termini meccanici.

The research conducted by this paper has been largely updated and elaborated in my MA-thesis "Senses and Passions of Benvenuto Cellini"; you are more than welcome to check it out. // The article aims to rethink the several stereotypes of Romantic tradition, which are still reproduced in regard to Benvenuto Cellini and his Vita. Using the approaches of intellectual history and iconographical studies, the present study pays attention to the coherent system of lay, scientific and ‘secret’ knowledge of the epoch lurking under the surface of the simplicity and even naivety of the author’s language. I argue that this autobiographical writing embodies a certain type of culture of the self deeply rooted in contemporary medical, alchemical and magical contexts. Organized around the concept of “getting pleasure,” Cellini’s practices of the self are built into the Neo-Platonic picture of the world. Analyzing the two passages of Vita, I demonstrate the author’s spiritual ascent from the corporeal suffering to union with ‘the One’ by means of individual and collective magic rituals, transforming his Life into a work of art.

Une génération après les guerres médiques, quand les Grecs purent jeter sur l'Empire perse un regard apaisé, ils furent sensibles à un certain exotisme religieux. Hérodote se plaît à faire le tableau d'un peuple pratiquant une religion toute naturelle. Les Perses, dit-il, n'ont ni temples, ni idoles, ni autels. Ils adorent, au sommet des montagnes, le ciel tout entier. Ils exposent les cadavres aux chiens et aux oiseaux, ou les enterrent après les avoir enduits de cire. Leur morale est simple et raisonnable : une faute isolée ne compte pas, mais bien la balance entre les bonnes et les mauvaises actions que l'on accomplit durant sa vie ; et ils enseignent aux enfants trois choses seulement : monter à cheval, tirer à l'arc et dire la vérité. La fonction sacerdotale est confiée à la tribu mède des mages.

Seminal works on ancient Egyptian medicine tend to treat the field as distinct from religious practices, often fixating on the medical papyri as exemplifying either rational or magical treatments. Refocusing the study towards the ancient Egyptian conceptions of physiology and disease etiology shows that their medical practices integrated religious concepts such as maat (balance) and heka (power). Therapeutic measures and titles for healers, swnw, wab priest, and sau, further underscored the physical interchange between the mortal and divine worlds for the ancient Egyptians.