Læknir ok lægbók: Mediterranean remedies in Old Norse manuscripts, a comparative study and translation of medical practices

Cultural biases have affected certain areas of Old Norse scholarship by neglecting comparative perspective on textual studies which have led to the study of Old Norse in isolation. I study XIII-XV centuries Old Norse medical treaties featuring classics and continental influences with a comparative perspective, assessing the extent to which mediterranean medical lore was re-elaborated in the north. I will provide annotated translation of remedies, herbaria and antidotes contained in manuscripts preserved in Copenhagen and Reykjavík, and I compare them with their continental counterparts at the British Library, Cambridge and Oxford. I intend to demonstrate that: Old Norse participated to the cultural syncretism in the Middle Ages by assimilating Latin and Greek medical knowledge through the Anglo-Saxon mediation, there is a materiality of practices which allowed for a physical impact on the body and liberate the Old Norse studies from isolation and a sense of remoteness from their continental neighbours.