Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Medicine and Law: The Confluence of Art and Science in the Middle Ages / Wendy J. Turner and Sara M. Butler -- 1 Compensating Body and Honor: The Old Frisian Compensation Tariffs / Han Nijdam -- 2 Midwives in the Middle Ages? Birth Attendants, 600–1300 / Fiona Harris-Stoertz -- 3 Learned Men and Skillful Matrons: Medical Expertise and the Forensics of Rape in the Middle Ages / Hiram Kümper -- 4 Expert Examination of Wounds in the Criminal Court of Justice in Cocentaina (Kingdom of Valencia) during the Late Middle Ages / Carmel Ferragud -- 5 Forensic Evidence, Lay Witnesses and Medical Expertise in the Criminal Courts of Late Medieval Italy / Joanna Carraway Vitiello -- 6 Mental Health as a Foundation for Suit or an Excuse for Theft in Medieval English Legal Disputes / Wendy J. Turner -- 7 Making Right Practice? Regulating Surgery and Medicine in Fourteenthand Fifteenth-Century Bologna / Kira Robison -- 8 Medical Licensing in Late Medieval Portugal / Iona McCleery -- 9 Dreaming of Valencia’s Social Order in Jaume Roig’s Espill / Jean Dangler -- 10 Portrait of a Surgeon in Fifteenth-Century England / Sara M. Butler -- 11 An Infirm Man: Reading Francis of Assisi’s Retirement in the Context of Canon Law / Donna Trembinski -- 12 Medicine and Miracle: Law Enforcement in the Lives of Irish Saints / Máire Johnson -- Concluding Remarks / Katherine D. Watson -- Works Cited -- Index.

Medicine and the Law in the Middle Ages offers fresh insight into the intersection between these two distinct disciplines. A dozen authors address this intersection within three themes: medical matters in law and administration of law, professionalization and regulation of medicine, and medicine and law in hagiography. The articles include subjects such as medical expertise at law on assault, pregnancy, rape, homicide, and mental health; legal regulation of medicine; roles physicians and surgeons played in the process of professionalization; canon law regulations governing physical health and ecclesiastical leaders; and connections between saints’ judgments and the bodies of the penitent. Drawing on primary sources from England, France, Frisia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, the volume offers a truly international perspective. Contributors are Sara M. Butler, Joanna Carraway Vitiello, Jean Dangler, Carmel Ferragud, Fiona Harris-Stoertz, Maire Johnson, Hiram Kümper, Iona McCleery, Han Nijdam, Kira Robison, Donna Trembinski, Wendy J. Turner, and Katherine D. Watson.