Tag: 13th century
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Pope John XXI, the only physician to become pope
Pope John XXI was born in Lisbon between 1210 and 1220. His original name was Pedro Rebuli Julião and he was also referred to as Petrus Hispanus (Peter of Spain). He was the only Portuguese ever to be pope. Strictly speaking he should have been John XX, but because of an error number XX was…
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St. Godric and the lost leper hospital of Darlington
Stephen MartinUK In the late 1100s, the English monk Reginald of Durham wrote an account in Latin of the hermit St. Godric, whom he knew personally.1 Reginald attributed over two hundred healing miracles to him, with detailed descriptions including the patient’s name and origin.2 Reginald’s book deserves to be better known as a rich catalogue…
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Salernitan women
Vicent RodillaAlicia López-CastellanoValencia, Spain The first medical school in the Western world is thought to be the Schola Medica Salernitana (Figure 1), which traces its origins to the dispensary of an early medieval monastery.1 The medical school at Salerno achieved celebrity between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, before it was overshadowed by universities at Bologna…
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A happy individual knows nothing
Basil BrookeWitwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa It seems that most people, most of the time, tend to avoid the really big questions, the hows and whys of existence, preferring to wait and see what happens when they die. They may tell you, and quite rightly, that whilst alive it is best to get on with the…