Medical Translations and Practical Compilations: A Necessary Coincidence?

Abstract

AbstractFourteenthand fifteenth-century medicine is characterised by a trickle-down effect which led to an increasing dissemination of knowledge in the vernacular. In this context, translations and compilations appear to be two similar endeavours aiming to provide access to contents pertaining to the particulars of medical practice. Nowhere is this phenomenon seen more clearly than in vernacular manuscripts on surgery. Our study proposes to compare for the first time two corpora of manuscripts of surgical compilations, in Middle French and Middle English respectively, in order to discuss form and matter in this type of book production.