Spring is (finally!) around the corner and we’re looking forward to longer days and warmer temperatures. This month, we’ve decided to explore some of the strange and quirky stories surrounding medieval medical practices.

In this issue, we look at a seventeenth-century Irish medical text with medieval roots. What can it tell us about a mythical island purported to give the gift of healing? How about a poison for what ails you? We head East and discover the Byzantine penchant for poisoning emperors! How did medieval people provide for their aging populations? We look at the makeup of the medieval household and at the ways in which elderly and frail family members were cared for in the Middle Ages. Then there’s music and mental health – how was music used by medieval medical practitioners to soothe depression and to ease patients before surgical procedures? Next, we examine the belief in the powers of saints’ relics, and how dusty holy bones could be used to heal diseases and a variety of ailments. We travel along the Nile with a physician turned “Egyptologist” chronicling his Egyptian adventures and discoveries in the thirteenth century. Last but certainly not least, we speak with the curators of the Georgian National Center of Manuscripts and learn about what these important documents can tell us about Georgian heritage during the medieval period.

We hope you enjoy this issue!