TUESDAY 12 AUGUST 2025
TIME: 7PM TO 8PM
LOCATION: Hosted online using Zoom Webinars
TICKETS: Free, registration required. This event is suitable for those aged 14 and over.
ACCESSIBILITY: Live subtitles are available using Zoom's Live Transcript function.
The medieval world is a much-maligned period of our history, a time many of us assume superstition or blind trial-and-error provided the foundation for medical practice. Yet evidence shows that medical practitioners during this time had a much more sophisticated understanding about how the body functioned.
Join us for this online discussion inspired by our Curious Cures exhibition, as our panellists 'dissect’ the medieval body, revealing how our ancestors thought their bodies functioned, and some of the fascinating, complex and often questionable remedies used to treatment their ailments.
Meet the panel
- Dr James Freeman (Chair), Medieval Manuscript Specialist and curator of Curious Cures at Cambridge University Library.
- Dr Hannah Bower, a medievalist, Teaching Associate at the Faculty of English in Cambridge, Fellow at Churchill College, and author of Middle English Medical Recipes and Literary Play.
- Dr Philippa Carter, a specialist in early medicine, Assistant Professor in the HPS Department and Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of History in Cambridge, and Fellow at Sidney Sussex College.
- Dr Jack Hartnell, Head of Research at the National Gallery in London, and author of Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages.