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Dear colleagues, *Apologies for cross-posting* The next seminar in the 2015/16 History of Pre-Modern Medicine series takes place next Tuesday (2nd February) with Peter Jones (University of Cambridge). Details: ‘The medicine of the friars in late medieval England’ Abstract: Compared to occupational groups like physicians, surgeons, barbers, apothecaries and empirics of various kinds, or women practitioners, very little attention has been paid by historians to the medical knowledge and practice of the mendicants in late medieval England. This is partly because the available sources for libraries and practitioners under-represent mendicants, while Langland and Chaucer depict friars as lecherous opportunists who take advantage of their access to women in the household. Moreover the ‘frater medicus’ tending his brethren in the convent was on the way out in the 14th century, we have learnt, as lay practitioners were hired to provide medical care. This paper will make the case for reinstating the friars as important contributors to medical knowledge and practice directed at lay patients in late medieval England, and will investigate the friars’ contributions to gynaecology, alchemy and medical astrology. What is more, the friars seem to have pioneered a wiki-type encyclopaedia of medical knowledge compiled between 1416 and 1425 and later used and developed by the great court physician John Argentein. --- The seminar will take place in the Wellcome Library, 183 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE. Doors open at 6pm prompt, the seminar will start at 6.15pm. More info here: http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2016/01/the-medicine-of-the-friars-in-late-medieval-england/ With best wishes, Ross Ross MacFarlane Research Engagement Officer Wellcome Library Wellcome Trust Gibbs Building 215 Euston Road London NW1 2BE, UK T +44 (0)20 7611 7340 F +44 (0)20 7611 8369 E [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> http://wellcomelibrary.org<http://wellcomelibrary.org/> The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. We support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine. Our investment portfolio gives us the independence to support such transformative work as the sequencing and understanding of the human genome, research that established front-line drugs for malaria, and Wellcome Collection, our free venue for the incurably curious that explores medicine, life and art. The Wellcome Trust is a charity registered in England and Wales, no. 210183. Its sole trustee is The Wellcome Trust Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, no. 2711000 (whose registered office is at 215 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK). This message has been scanned for viruses by Websense Hosted Email Security - www.websense.com