"TEXT, DRUGS AND PROTOCOL IN MEDIEVAL MEDICINE"
A Lecture by Dr. Nicolas Everett
Archaeological Institute of America

Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Nunemaker Auditorium, Monroe Hall, 3rd floor
8:00 p.m.
Free admission and free parking on campus                                                                                                                                     

Medieval drugs are often dismissed by modern science as having been little more than placebos when they were not downright dangerous. Yet many of the most commonly used drugs today were handed down to us from the Middle Ages, and recent scientific research on medicinal plants suggests we should continue to listen to past traditions for insight and inspiration. This paper will discuss examples of medieval drugs and new ways to consider them in light of recent advances in both science and humanities research, advances that can be harnessed to reconsider the history of medicine, and to provide a more sophisticated understanding of how people in the past exploited the natural world to maintain their health.

Dr. Everett received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, England. He is a Fellow at Trinity College in Toronto where he is an associate professor in the History department and Center for Medieval Studies. He specializes in many aspects of late antique and early Medieval Italy, including manuscripts, the lives of the saints and saints’ cults as well as medieval medical texts and pharmacy. 

Co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Classical Studies program and the New Orleans Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

For further information, call 504-865-2287.