I can answer for Anglo-Saxon England: you might want to check both the
eleventh century Lacnunga (MS Harley 585) and the tenth-century
Leechbook (MS Royal 12D XVII). Both do on occasion describe symptoms,
although not regularly.
They can both be found in Oswald Cockayne's three volume _Leechdoms,
Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England_ (Rolls series, 1864-66;
repr. Holland Press, 1961), along with some other texts that might
interest you--the Anglo-Saxon Herbal (Herbarium Apuleius), the Medicina
de Quadrupedibus, the Peri Didaxaeon, the Handbook of Byrhtferth, and
sundry marginalia remedies. Cockayne is not the most current scholarly
edition of many of these, but a good place to start.
For secondary and bibliography, try M.L. Cameron, _Anglo-Saxon
Medicine_ (Cambridge, 1993). Also, Howard Clark Kee, _Medicine,
Mirachle, and Magi in New Testament Times_ might have something. (I am
pulling these from my own bibliography in _Popular Religion in Late
Saxon England_ UNC Press, 1996).
Old stuff, but check out things by J.H.G. Grattan and Charles Singer
(including an edition of the Lacnunga)--they take a dim view of
Anglo-Saxon medical sensibilities but they did track some of the herbs
and symptoms. Or try Wilfrid Bonser, _The Medical Background of
Anglo-Saxon England_, who is much more sympathetic to folklore.
Jerome Kroll and Bernie Bachrach have some interesting articles, one
debunking the notion that medievals thought sin caused most diseases:
"Sin and the Etiology of Disease in Pre-Crusade Europe," Journal of the
History of Medicine 41 (1986): 395-414.
Have fun!
Karen Jolly
--
Dr. Karen Jolly
Associate Professor, History
University of Hawai`i at Manoa
[log in to unmask]
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly
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