Jim Bugslag wrote:
>I'm surprised you didn't mention the crypt of Chartres Cathedral,
where a hospital of sorts was accommodated around the healing shrine
of the Puits des Saints-Forts.
I suppose i *could* admit to spacing that one out, but no one would believe
me; so I'd rather pique a knit with you and say that it was a healing shrine,
not really a sort of hospital.
made me think of the ergot outbreak of 1124(?) in Soissons, when, according to
the detailed account of Hugo Farsitus (who was, i'm
thinking, from his careful descriptions of the symptoms, a doctor) the convent
of St. Mary's, just a bit East of the cathedral, was apparently a center for
healing.
(ergot poisoning causes LSD-like hallucinations, which no doubt greatly aided
the work of the saint--i think that there are also accounts of St. Nicholas
being something of a specific for ergot.)
but, this must have been quite common--the sick gathering round a working
saint's _locus_; and seperate from a "real" hospital.
Or, was it?
i don't know where the proper "hospital" was in Soissons, but i'm sure that
there must have been one.
now the creakie ole memory's getting jarred.
wasn't there a hospital associated with the church of St. Cross in Winchester?
(but, presumably, not the Cathedral?)
somewhere i came across reference to a late 12th c. saint's life which
mentioned a vision of the apparition of the saint through a window in the
[newly constructed] transept of the collegial of St. Mary's of Etampes, which
was had by one of several patients there.
i toyed with the idea that the unusual architecture of this wierd church was
connected to its partial use as a hospital; but couldn't figure out where to
run with that particular ball and dropped it.
at some later date (before the 17th c.) the hospital was moved to its present
site, just north of the church.
the Hotel-Dieu at Chateaudun (South of Chartres), near the present hospital,
documented from at least the 11th c., also is something of a 12th c.
architectural curiosity, with a large, low, multi-bayed section
on the North side of the "nave".
>In any case, there was an Hotel-Dieu facing the facade of the Cathedral
of Notre-Dame in Paris,
yes, of course.
was it directly "en face" or on the North side of the _place_, where the
present (18th c?) one is?
>which suggests the possibility of a pattern here. Does anyone know if
there are any studies of Hotels-Dieu,
far as i know there *is* quite a literature on hospitals--although most
of what i've come across (and forgotten) is burried in the local archeological
literature. i don't know whether or not anyone has done a general
synthesis--just never looked.
>particularly in an episcopal context?
at Chartres the H-D was, i believe, directly under the control of the
chapter.
about 10-15 years ago i met Margaret Wade LeBarge at k'zoo and she mentioned
that she was working on a book on hospitals--i tried without sucess to sell
her a copy of the cartularly of the leprosarium at Chartres.
Indiana U. doesn't seem to have her book and i don't know whether she finished
the project or not.
Best from here,
Christopher
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