[Sca-cooks] Medieval Physicians

[Suey]

     In reference to "Charlemagne and the doctors," there were no 
'doctors' in medieval history. The correct word is physician in this 
case. Barbers, who bleed patients, were another matter.
     Changing the subject a bit,  I have a problem with my colleagues 
because they feel no book should be trashed. I disagree. I feel when a 
book is historical 'crap,' it should be trashed so as to not to let 
readers be mislead. I do not believe in the inquisition but when there 
is no foundation for facts presented as history they should not be 
admitted for publication.
     Today I started reading Matt Cohen's Spanish translation of THE 
SPANISH DOCTOR. It is about a Jewish physician and his family who were 
persecuted by the "Spanish Inquisition." It starts out that the 
physician has completed his medical studies in Montpelier and returned 
to mama's house the Jewish Ghetto in Toledo, Spain. (Oh, the book cover 
has a painting of the royal fortress with towers added by Philip II in 
the latter part of the 16th Century.) Physician preforms a cesarean on a 
Christian woman of wealth! - No man was allowed to enter the room of a 
woman giving birth during the Spanish Middle Ages. IT WAS TOTALLY 
PROHIBITED, not even Hapsburg kings were allowed in! Then this Canadian 
author, I think, calls the woman by her husband's last name. Spanish 
women keep their last names for their entire lives. Now our 'doctor' has 
feline descendants cause he jumps over walls, out of the ghetto, at 
night to attend his patients. Ghettos, in Spain, had curfews during the 
Inquisition under Isabella and Ferdi, not before. The only Jewish 
community that I know of that was able to flee from Ferdi was in 
Madrigal (de las Torres today), Avila by using tunnels. Finally the 
husband of the patient and the doctor toast to a drink. The author says 
Jews were not allowed to drink. So now we have Jews governed by Islamic 
laws?
     Oh yeah, Mama was violated by soldiers of Henry I of Castile which 
takes us back to the late 14th Century. Then so called "Cardinal Rodrigo 
Velazquez" starts the inquisition from what seen on the cover. The 
Inquisition did not start until 16th Century. when Cisneros goes full 
force. Mendoza, who was not cardinal until Isabel and Ferdi, kept things 
on a low pitch the last 4th of the 15th century. Should we assume that 
in order to be historically correct, this doctor lived for 150 years???
Suey