'Brothers who have Studied Medicine': Dominican Friars in Thirteenth-Century Paris

Abstract

Summary. This article discusses the possibility of the involvement of Dominican friars with some aspects of medical study and teaching in thirteenth-century Paris. An edict of Canon Law from 1298 and similar Dominican legislation from 1299 restricted the number of religious who studied medicine. After a brief discussion of medical knowledge in the Orders of friars, the contents of a privately-owned thirteenth-century Parisian manuscript of medical texts of supplements to the articella will be examined. Twelve accompanying historiated initials are described, some of which depict Dominican friars or their assistants undertaking key medical tasks. The analysis of these is placed within the context of Dominican education and leads to the conclusion that in the thirteenth century at least, some of the early friars may have had closer connections to university medicine, as teachers and students, than has hitherto been recognised.