The Guardian

Why the weasel testicles? Cambridge show explains medieval medicine


Exhibition aims to help visitors get inside the minds that thought mercury and roasted apples would cure lice

Medieval treatments might make you question the sanity of the doctors of the day, but a new exhibition is set to take visitors inside the minds of such medics and reveal the method behind what can seem like madness.

Curious Cures, opening on Saturday at Cambridge University Library, is the culmination of a project to digitise and catalogue more than 180 manuscripts, mostly dating from the 14th or 15th centuries, that contain recipes for medical treatments, from compendiums of cures to alchemical texts and guides to healthy living.

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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/28/mercury-weasel-testicles-feature-uk-exhibition-medieval-medicine-curious-cases-cambridge-university-library

Author : Nicola Davis Science correspondent

Publish date : 2025-03-28 06:00:00

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