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1300Medicine: examining urine
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1300The medieval Church
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1300Medieval Surgery
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1300Rural life: the lazy ploughman
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1301Friar playing music
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1308Dante's Divine Comedy
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1310Harvesting acorns
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1315Living and dead Princes
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1320Golden Haggadah
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1320Noah in the Holkham Bible
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1325Apothecary shop
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1325City walls
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1330Lord at supper
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1330Peasants work the land
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1335The Last Judgement
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1337Hundred Years War
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1348Demons fall into Hell
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1348Chronicle of the Black Death
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1350Genesis picture book
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1360Medieval encyclopedia
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1375Sir Gawain & the Green Knight
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1381Peasants' Revolt
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1385Scottish freedom
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1390English cookery manuscript
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Intro
Medieval doctors often made their diagnoses by examining stools, blood and especially urine. Numerous manuscripts from this period include images of doctors holding flasks of urine up to the light. Some medical treatises, such as this one, contain illustrations showing urine in different colours. This would have acted as a kind of chart, helping doctors to make decisions about their patients.
Support from properly trained doctors would only have been available to a minority - the wealthy and those in monasteries, for instance. Most ordinary people, particularly those outside towns, would have found it difficult to access professional care. Those in need of medical assistance might instead turn to local people who had medical knowledge derived from folk traditions and practical experience.
Shelfmark: Harley 3140 f. 32v
