Reflection on the remains of the past as a way of emphasising the transience of life was such a common theme in Old English literature that they had a special word for this motif: Dustsceawung, 'contemplation of the dust.'I blog history things. I am particularly interested in medieval, maritime, medical, and scientific history, as well as osteoarchaeology and palaeopathology. So you will probably see a lot of those topics here. My ask is always open for questions, suggestions, requests, or anything else you feel compelled to say.
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For a Man that is Sick in his Stomach
‘Take cumin a pound, and bray it in a mortar; and take the same and good stale ale, and seethe them together, and skim it well. And when it is well boiled, take it from the fire, and let it run through a strainer or through a linen cloth, and let the sick man drink the licour lukewarm. And the dross of the cumin so boiled to be put in a bag of linen cloth shaped like a heart, and to be laid on the stomach of him that is sick, as hot as he may suffer it.
A Leechbook or Collection of Medical Recipes of the Fifteenth Century. The text of MS 136 of the Literary Society of London, transcribed and edited by Warren R. Dawson. Reproduced in The Medieval Cookbook, by Maggie Black.
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