Monastery medicine

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Under monastic medicine is defined as the "medicine of the 6th to the 12th century, which was widely practiced in the West of monks". Monastery medicine is thus part of medieval medicine and is based primarily on phytotherapy . The term, previously also described with the terms “monastic medicine”, “monastic medicine” and “clerical medicine”, was coined because the hospitals were run by the monasteries since the early Middle Ages . Monks and nuns had a basic knowledge of the healing effects of herbs and medicinal plants . Medieval medicine, both inside and outside the monasteries, was based on the teachings of Hippocrates and Galenus and was based primarily on humoral pathology , i.e. the theory of body fluids. In monastery medicine, there is room for the use of medicinal baths, ointments and drinking cures with biblical medicinal plants.

Monastery medicine is a term for an epoch of medical history and is not used by scientists as a synonym for alternative healing methods, not even for so-called Hildegard medicine .

Historical background

After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the uncertainties of the newly forming Christian culture in Europe, there were upheavals in culture and civilization, including the disappearance of the medical system that had existed until then, the medicine of antiquity . While ancient Greek medicine lived on in Byzantine medicine , only fragments could be saved in Latin Western Europe . The Germanic tribal rights dealt with various problems of medicine, which had elements from ancient scientific medicine as well as from pagan- religious Germanic medicine . This again consisted of simple recipes, but also spells , incantations , blessings and prayers .

In medical history, the period from the early Middle Ages to the High Middle Ages is referred to as monastery medicine . The main phase lasted from the 8th to the middle of the 12th century. During this time, medical care in Europe was mainly in the hands of monks and nuns. In the West, medicine was considered a craft and applied theology at this time , there was no training for doctors outside of the monasteries. Diseases were considered to be sent by God, including epidemics such as the plague . Healing without God's help was considered impossible.

Development of monastery medicine

The care of sick confreres is already mentioned in the Pachomius monastic rules , which were written around 325 . Around 527 Benedict of Nursia founded the first monastery on Monte Cassino . In his rule of the order ( Regula Benedicti ) he stipulated that nursing the sick was the most important task of the monks. Each monastery should set up its own room for this and train a monk, the infirmar . Thus, at the beginning of their appearance, the monasteries took on a social task for the general public. The principle behind it was mercy (caritas) . This rule of Benedict was the basis of monastic medicine. Pope Gregory the Great found the Regula Benedicti to be exemplary and therefore declared it to be binding for all Catholic orders. The late antique scholar and chancellor of the progressive Ostrogothic king Theoderic in Ravenna Flavius ​​Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus demanded around 560 that monks should have basic knowledge of healing. Cassiodorus had joined the Benedictine order, laid the foundations for medieval education and founded the Vivarium monastery. The order of St. Lazarus , the order of John and other orders founded numerous hospitals where the sick as well as the poor and old found refuge.

While Bishop Gregor von Tours in the Merovingian Empire was still skeptical about medicine, the Carolingian Emperor Charlemagne promoted medicine of his time by issuing a law that made it mandatory for monasteries and cities to create herb gardens and the plants to be grown in them ( capitulare de villis ). The so-called St. Gallen monastery plan that has been preserved shows the ideal layout of a monastery garden; A separate bed was laid out for each medicinal plant. There were 16 plants. The abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Reichenau, Walahfrid Strabo (808-849), describes 24 plants in his didactic poem Hortulus . Medicinal plants included sage , wormwood , fennel , opium poppy , lovage , chervil , flea herb , betonia , radish and mint . One of the monk doctors known by name was Notker II in the Benedictine monastery of St. Gallen.

The monks and nuns had scientific and medicinal literature at their disposal (e.g. with the extensive work of Isidore of Seville, which is available in many monasteries ), gained experience in dealing with medicinal herbs and passed on their knowledge within the respective monasteries. For centuries there were no trained medical professionals outside the monasteries. At the Council of Aachen in 817, nursing was primarily assigned to the monks and nuns, which also led to the emergence of monastery hospitals as organized medical care facilities, sometimes with the participation of monk doctors (monastery doctors), up to the Council of Clermont from 1130, which forbade the monks at least officially from medical activities, was favored. In the population there was a folk medicine that was partly characterized by superstition , but - like the work of Pliny the Elder - found its way into monastery medicine. There were also craft doctors, which included the bathers and clippers in the bathhouses .

The monastery medicine reached a high point in the work of Hildegard von Bingen in the twelfth century, who firmly believed in God as the ultimate cure for all illness.

One of the first medical universities in Europe was founded in Salerno in the High Middle Ages . From Spain, where the broad knowledge of oriental medicine met Western culture, an academization of lay medicine slowly began. One of the first medical universities was founded in Bologna in 1111, followed by Montpellier in 1187 , then Paris . Medical license was introduced in the 13th century . In the time of the Renaissance , the monastic medicine lost (technical terminology also as Präsalernitanische medicine or vorsalernitanische medicine called) gradually their precedence over lay healers. Albertus Magnus tried to combine the knowledge of monastic medicine with medicine.

As a result of the Reformation , many monasteries in Northern Europe were closed, but new ones emerged during the Counter Reformation . During this time the monastery pharmacies were built, in which mainly medicinal herbs were sold. However, these were in competition with secular pharmacies, so that in some places the monastery pharmacies were banned. Today, building on the tradition of the monastery hospitals, some of the hospitals are still church-sponsored.

Works on monastery medicine

The healers in the monasteries collected preserved medical works by ancient authors, copied them and built on this knowledge. The most important ancient work on herbal medicine was the materia medica (medicine) by the Greek doctor Dioscurides , which comprises five volumes and describes remedies mainly of plant, but also of mineral and animal origin. The oldest surviving book on monastery medicine in German-speaking countries is the Lorsch Pharmacopoeia , a manuscript from the time of Charlemagne (around 795). It was written in the Lorsch Abbey near Worms . The main part consists of recipe collections. In this pharmacopoeia we find the earliest attempt at cost containment in the health care system by recommending the use of equally effective native herbs instead of the expensive herbs from the Orient. In addition, the book demands that not only the rich, but also the poor, must be able to access the art of healing (principle of redistribution through socially graded doctor's fees).

In the 11th century the monk Odo Magdunensis wrote the work Macer floridus , which became a standard work of herbal medicine in all of Central Europe and was as well known at that time as the writings of Hildegard von Bingen, whose herbal medicine received little attention in the Middle Ages. The work describes almost 80 medicinal plants and the effects attributed to them. In the High Middle Ages, a medical school was founded in Salerno, where a number of medical works were created, including Circa instans in the 12th century , which treated around 270 plants. The work was (and is) ascribed to the Salern author Matthaeus Platearius , who came from a family of doctors working at the Salerno medical school , but the authorship is controversial among experts.

Around 1100, an Upper German clerical doctor wrote the so-called Innsbruck Pharmacopoeia with a text that mixed up German and Latin, using pre-Salernitan sources (e.g. Sextus Placitus Papyrensis , Marcellus Empiricus and Pliny the Elder ) and with its practical, not too extensive instructions as typical can apply to the recipe collections used by monasteries.

Between 1150 and 1160 Hildegard von Bingen wrote her treatises on medicine, which became known under the names Physica and Causae et curae (Latin: "causes and treatments"). According to the biographers, she herself attributed the content of these works to divine inspiration. In some cases, the previously described treatments are included, but some were completely new, and some plants were not considered healing until then, for example the marigold, Calendula officinalis . The Physica consists of nine volumes, two of which are dedicated to herbs, one to the healing powers of trees, and other to various animals, precious stones and metals. Hildegard von Bingen developed an independent medical theory based on the theory of the humors, which was unique in the Middle Ages.

From around 1300 to 1400 , the German pharmacopoeia of an author from East Central Germany, which was fed from various sources and referred to as Bartholomew , had a great influence on monastic medicine.

Practically all areas of monastery medicine are also dealt with in a collective manuscript that was created between 1300 and 1350 and was widespread until the 16th century and was used in Upper German monasteries, for example, which is referred to as the corpus of monastery medicine .

The Garden of Health , which was written in 1485 by the doctor Wonnecke von Kaub, became even more important in German-speaking countries . Sources were u. a. the Macer floridus and the Circa instans . The book was reprinted several times and served again as a source for other herbal books of the 16th century, for example by Rößlin 1533, Lonitzer 1551 and Tabernaemontanus 1588.

research

In Germany there is the research group Klostermedizin GmbH , which emerged from a research group "Klostermedizin" set up at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg in 1999/2000 by Gundolf Keil and Franz-Christian Czygan . After Keil's departure in 2010, Johannes G. Mayer was converted into the non-university research group for monastery medicine . Its members include doctors, botanists, chemists, pharmacists, philologists and historians (see also Franz-Christian Czygan, Konrad Goehl and Hermann Josef Roth ). The aim of the research is to systematically record the empirical knowledge gathered by the monks and nuns and to make it accessible to the public, but also to modern medicine. To do this, the Latin texts are first translated before the plants described are scientifically examined.

See also

literature

  • Wolfgang U. Eckart : History of medicine . Springer textbook, 4th edition, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-540-67405-5 .
  • Irmgard Müller u. a .: The legacy of monastery medicine: Symposium in Eberbach Monastery, Eltville / Rh. on September 10, 1977, text of the lectures. Ingelheim a. Rh. 1978.
  • H.-P. Michael Freyer: Monastery pharmacies. In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , pp. 757 f.
  • Heidi Grun: The history of herbs and medicinal plants , Verlag Monsenstein and Vannerdat , Münster, ISBN 3-86582-174-X .
  • Kay Peter Jankrift : With God and black magic. Medicine in the Middle Ages. Scientific Book Society (among others), Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-16511-X .
  • Kay Peter Jankrift: Illness and Medicine in the Middle Ages. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-534-07659-1 .
  • Gundolf Keil and Paul Schnitzer (eds.): The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia and Early Medieval Medicine , Lorsch 1991 (= history sheets for the Bergstrasse district, special volume 12).
  • Gundolf Keil, Jürgen Kiefer: The 'Erfurt Carthusian Regimen'. Notes on the content, structure and author's question of a monastic health theory of the 15th century. In: Jürgen Kiefer (Hrsg.): Medicine and remedies. To acquire and transfer medical-pharmaceutical knowledge in Europe. Festschrift Ingrid Kästner. Aachen 2013 (= European Science Relations. Volume 5), pp. 217–259.
  • Hans H. Lauer: monastery medicine. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte . De Gruyter, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , pp. 758-764.
  • Johannes Gottfried Mayer , Konrad Goehl , Katharina Englert: The plants of monastery medicine in presentation and application. With pictures of plants by the Benedictine Vitus Auslasser (15th century) from the Clm 5905 of the Bavarian State Library in Munich (= DWV-Schriften zur Medizingeschichte , Vol. 5), Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag , Baden-Baden 2009, ISBN 978-3-86888- 007-6 .
  • Johannes Gottfried Mayer, Konrad Goehl: Highlights of monastery medicine: The “Macer floridus” and the herbarium of Vitus Auslasser. Edited with an introduction and German translation. Reprint-Verlag Leipzig, Holzminden 2001, ISBN 3-8262-1120-0 (with facsimile of pages 28 to 123 of Choulant's 1832 edition and five detailed registers).
  • as ed. with Konrad Goehl: Herbal Book of Monastery Medicine: The “Macer floridus” - Medicine of the Middle Ages. Reprint-Verlag Leipzig, Holzminden 2003, ISBN 978-3-8262-1130-0 (revised version of the German translation).
  • Johannes Gottfried Mayer: On the history and spirit of the epoch of monastery medicine , in: Cistercienser Chronik, 109th year, issue 2, 2002, pp. 183-198, ISSN  0379-8291 .
  • Johannes Gottfried Mayer, Bernhard Uehleke , Kilian Saum: The great manual of monastic medicine. Verlag Zabert Sandmann, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8289-2140-X .
  • Tobias Niedenthal: How the healing art got into the monasteries. In: Rudolf Walter (Ed.): Health from monasteries. Herder Verlag , Freiburg 2013. p. 6f. ISBN 978-3-451-00546-6
  • Adelheid Platte, Karlheinz Platte (Ed., On behalf of the city of Lorsch): The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia. Monastery medicine in the Carolingian era: Selected texts and contributions. Lorsch 1989; 2nd edition, ibid. 1990.
  • Hermann Josef Roth : Misunderstood monastery medicine . Spectrum of Science, March 2006, pp. 84-91, ISSN  0170-2971 .
  • Heinrich Schipperges : The sick in the Middle Ages. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-406-33603-5 .
  • Clemens Stoll: Medicine and medicine supply in early medieval monasteries. In: Gundolf Keil, Paul Schnitzer (ed.): The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia' and early medieval medicine. Negotiations of the medical history symposium in September 1989 in Lorsch. Laurissa, Lorsch 1991 (= history sheets for the Bergstrasse district. Special volume 12), pp. 149–218.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hans H. Lauer (2005), p. 758.
  2. ^ Conrad Brunner : About medicine and nursing in the Middle Ages in Swiss countries. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1922 (= publications of the Swiss Society for the History of Medicine and Natural Sciences, 1), pp. 3–38
  3. ^ Hermann Fischer: Middle High German recipes from Bavarian monasteries and their medicinal plants. In: Communications from the Bavarian Botanical Society for Research into the Local Flora IV, 6, 1926, pp. 69–75; also in: Medicine in the Medieval Occident. Edited by Gerhard Baader and Gundolf Keil, Darmstadt 1982 (= ways of research , 363), pp. 83–94.
  4. ↑ Tobias Niedenthal: How the healing art came into the monasteries. In: Rudolf Walter (Ed.): Health from monasteries. Herder Verlag , Freiburg 2013. p. 6f. ISBN 978-3-451-00546-6
  5. ↑ Eckart: History of Medicine , 1998, p. 103.
  6. ↑ Eckart: History of Medicine , 1998, p. 101.
  7. ^ Bernhard Dietrich Haage: Medical Literature of the Teutonic Order in the Middle Ages. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 9, 1991, pp. 217-231, here: p. 219.
  8. ↑ Hans H. Lauer (2005), p. 758 f.
  9. ↑ Johannes Duft : Notker the doctor. Monastery medicine and monk doctor in early medieval St. Gallen. St. Gallen 1972 (= 112th St. Gallen New Year's sheet ).
  10. ↑ Hans H. Lauer (2005), p. 760.
  11. ↑ Bernhard Dietrich Haage: Love as a disease in the medical literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 5, 1987, pp. 173-208, here: pp. 186 f.
  12. ↑ Irmgard Müller: The herbal remedies with Hildegard von Bingen. Healing knowledge from monastery medicine. Salzburg 1982.
  13. ↑ Barbara Fehringer: The "Speyer herb book" with the medicinal plants of Hildegard von Bingen. A study on the Middle High German “Physica” reception with a critical edition of the text , Würzburg 1994 (= Würzburg medical historical research. Supplement 2).
  14. ^ Augusto Beccaria: I codici di medicina del periodo presalernitano (secoli IX, X e XI). Rome 1956 (= Storia e letteratura. Volume 53).
  15. ↑ Compare also Peter Assion : Spiritual and secular healing arts in competition. In: Bavarian Yearbook for Folklore. 1976/1977, pp. 7-23.
  16. ↑ Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. (Mathematical and natural scientific dissertation Würzburg 1994) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 65). ISBN 3-8260-1667-X , pp. 97-99.
  17. ^ First works of monastery medicine, research group monastery medicine
  18. ^ Bernhard D. Haage, Wolfgang Wegner: Platearius (de Platea). In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1167 f.
  19. ^ Max Neuburger : History of Medicine. Volume II, part 1, Stuttgart 1911, p. 293.
  20. ↑ As the "pre-Salernitan period" is the time from 5th / 6th Century until the founding of the first "University" in Salerno in the 11th century. Cf., for example, Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. (Mathematical and natural scientific dissertation Würzburg 1994) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 65). ISBN 3-8260-1667-X , pp. 74-76.
  21. ↑ Gundolf Keil: 'Innsbruck Pharmacopoeia'. In: Author's Lexicon . 2nd Edition. Volume 4, Col. 395 f.
  22. ↑ Gundolf Keil: 'Innsbruck Pharmacopoeia'. In: Encyclopedia of Medical History. 2005, p. 675.
  23. ↑ Gundolf Keil: 'Bartholomäus'. In: Burghart Wachinger u. a. (Ed.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon . 2nd, completely revised edition, volume 1: 'A solis ortus cardine' - Colmar Dominican chronicler. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1978, col. 609-615.
  24. ↑ Gundolf Keil: 'Bartholomäus'. In: Werner E. Gerabek u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of medical history. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , pp. 148-150.
  25. ↑ Wolfgang Hirth: Corpus of monastery medicine. In: Burghart Wachinger u. a. (Ed.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon . 2nd, completely revised edition, Volume 5: Kochberger, Johannes - 'Marien-ABC'. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1985, pp. 321-325.
  26. ↑ Gundolf Keil: 'Corpus of Monastery Medicine'. In: Encyclopedia of Medical History. 2005, p. 783.
  27. ^ Gundolf Keil: Foreword. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 34, 2015 (2016), pp. 7–11, here: p. 7.