Abstract
Today, the world is struggling with a coronavirus epidemic. People explain differently the causes and sense of this disease. Old Polish literature about diseases is representative for European thought in the modern era. The problem of the disease appears in old Polish literature in various discourses. The three most important are religious, medical–astrological and social discourse. In this article, I discuss basic paradigms of thinking connected with these discourses and the relationship between them. In the religious discourse, it is God who decides about health and illness. The pathological state of the organism can be both a trial and a punishment for the sinner. The medical and astrological discourse is based on ancient medicine, medieval medicine and astrology. It assumes a close dependence of human health on the balance of the fluids in the body and on the planetary system. The social discourse is dominated by epidemics of infectious diseases. It is a collection of advices for organizing a society during a pandemic.
Highlights
The phenomenon of disease in each culture is the resultant of the level of knowledge, geographical location, understanding of philosophical schools, religiousness, social and political relations, economic factors as well as the competence and experience of physicians
The problem of the disease of the soul is not developed here as it will require a more extensive description in the form of a separate paper; it is mentioned in the context of the religious discourse
The foundation of the religious discourse in the old Polish literature is the authority of the Christian religion, the Bible and the magisterium of the Church
Summary
The phenomenon of disease in each culture is the resultant of the level of knowledge, geographical location, understanding of philosophical schools, religiousness, social and political relations, economic factors as well as the competence and experience of physicians. Literary works, including aphorisms, maxims, proverbs, fables, epigrams, dialogues, memoirs, elegies, hagiographies, hymns, sermons, letters, morality plays, songs, satire and laments, spoke about medical treatments, the ill, medicines, doctors, barbers, health and disease This issue is present in everyday texts, i.e. guides, herbariums, guidelines, instructions of municipal and church authorities, astrological predictions, calendars, family diaries, etc. Studying the relations between the old Polish culture and medicine those various works of literature can be classified according to many criteria—e.g. literary genres (fiction, popular literature, everyday literature), degree of the subject’s presence (disease and treatment as the main subject or a secondary one, mentioned casually while speaking about more important problems), the nature of discussed diseases as well as the specific character of discourse related to health and disease. The problem of the disease of the soul is not developed here as it will require a more extensive description in the form of a separate paper; it is mentioned in the context of the religious discourse
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