7 Facts About Medieval Medicine

In Europe, every sneeze was a portent of doom; every stubbed toe a sign of the impending apocalypse.

Ouroboros (Serpiente alquimica) drawing from a late medieval Byzantine Greek alchemical manuscript. Public Domain

Disease is as ancient as the first man’s morning breath and twice as foul.

Since time immemorial, we’ve been scratching our heads, trying to make sense of why our bodies betray us with such gleeful regularity.