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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies

@winstonblack.bsky.social
3.7K followers 2.6K following 694 posts

Haligonian, Medievalist, Author, Historian of Medicine, Science, and Religion. Dad to kids and cats. Playing piano, MTG, D&D, BG3

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Beauty of a Game @beautyofagame.bsky.social · 16/10/2026
The last time the Milwaukee Brewers were in the World Series you could get 12 8-track tapes for only a dollar through The Gorman Thomas Tape Club®.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 16/10/2026
As a kid from rural Wisconsin, outside Milwaukee, I believe I'm obliged to post: GO BREWERS !!!!!!!
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William Purkis @williampurkis.bsky.social · 16/10/2026
It is with overwhelming sadness that colleagues across @unibirmingham.bsky.social learned of the death last Friday of Prof. Chris Wickham. Chris’s colleagues and friends from around the world are invited to contribute to this online Book of Condolence: www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2026/pr...
birmingham.ac.uk
Professor Chris Wickham - University of Birmingham
It is with overwhelming sadness that colleagues across the College of Arts and Law learned of the death last Friday of Professor Chris Wickham.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
They continue to be fearless and foolish.
Young red squirrel nibbling a seed on a black doormat. So cute.
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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
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Waterfront Media HFX @wfmhfx.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
(Event ) Safety and consent have always been top priorities at Hal-Con ** Release waterfrontmediahfx.ca/news/safety-...
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Our yard is full with baby red squirrels! They're just leaving the nests, adorable and so stupid. Walked up to one nibbling a seed in the driveway, and it eventually climbed up this tree to look at me while I chatted and took pictures. I could hear adult squirrels barking madly from other trees.
Young red squirrel in a pine tree, absolutely adorable and looking at the photographer. Red autumnal maple leaves and gray sky can be seen in the background.
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Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Many people like to laugh at medieval illuminations of stag-snails, oh those funny medieval artists making up anim...
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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
New to me: a Zanj rebel coin www.britishmuseum.org/blog/zanj-re...
britishmuseum.org
The Zanj Rebellion: an ancient coin reveals a fight for freedom
Discover how this rare coin provides insights into a bloody but little-known slave revolt and the people who forged a fleeting sovereignty.
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The Medieval Academy of America @medievalacademy.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Call for Papers - The Medieval Reception of Greek Antiquity The Medieval Reception of Greek Antiquity (CfP) The Annual Conference of the Interdisciplinary Center for Hellenic Studies at the University www.themedievalacademyblog.org/call…
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Our whole house shook over here in Sambro.
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The Medieval Academy of America @medievalacademy.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Jobs For Medievalists Assistant or Associate Professor – Mediterranean and its Hinterlands, 500-1500 CE - Department of History Position overview Position title: Assistant Professor or Associate Professor Salary range: The current www.themedievalacademyblog.org/jobs…
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Enjoying the last flowers of this long hot summer. Our Rose o' Sharon always blooms last of all and this year is covered in blooms. Pale blue autumn asters are everywhere, the black eyed Susans aren't bothered by the cold anyway, and the squash keep putting out blooms but never fruits. So it goes.
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Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.northsky.social · 08/10/2026
Punching my ticket to Kalamazoo
Graphic labelled "Types of Medievalist Paper" based on xkcd.com/2456/. 12 pictures of 'papers' appear with overlaid titles:

You Won't Believe What Nuns Were Up To
HEY, I FOUND A TROVE OF OLD RECORDS! THEY DON'T TURN OUT TO BE PARTICULARLY USEFUL, BUT STILL, COOL!
The Silk Road Is Not Just A Website for Buying LSD
Niche Tax Documents in Provence, 1370-1373
Everything That Happened in Asia, 622-1914
Ships Might Be Very Important
Introducing "Spatula' The New Journal for Medieval Studies
Globalizing the Middle Ages: An Examination of England *and* France
How l Got the University to Pay for My Trip to Venice
Did You Know? Arabs Had Science and Culture Too
We Remembered Spain And It's Right Where We Left It
More Viking Shit Found in Unexpected Place
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
We've grown milkweed for a few years but this was the first when it was covered with caterpillars. Only saw one of them go chrysalis, but hopefully most of them transformed and flew off to Mexico.
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Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures @mediumaevum.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The Medium Aevum Essay Prize 2027 is now open to submissions! 📅Deadline: 12:00 midday (GMT) Tuesday 1st December, 2026 👩🏾‍🎓Eligibility: Graduate students and those who have completed a higher degree within the last three years 📝Submission: An essay of 6,500-8,000 words 🏆Prize: £500
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Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"... the manuscript’s folded sheets may have originally been piled on top of each other as “singulions” ... but were mis-bound in a more typical “nested” arrangement at some point in the mid to late 15th century." Something sensible about the Voynich manuscript?! Mirabile dictu! 😱 #MedievalSky
theguardian.com
A medieval manuscript has confounded scholars for centuries. Have they been reading it wrong all this time?
Researchers argue incorrect binding of Voynich manuscript radically changes ideas about its drawings and indecipherable text
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The mysterious death of a scientist at a plague institute in Siberia has sparked “next pandemic” panic. I wrote about what we know, what we don’t, why plague is not the Black Death in 2026 and the real outbreaks we ignore while worrying about hypothetical ones. bktitanji.substack.com/p/plague-is-...
bktitanji.substack.com
Plague is Scary but That Doesn’t Make It the Next Pandemic.
Why a mysterious death in Siberia has captured our attention while far more consequential outbreaks struggle to do the same
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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
#MedievalSky In case your students this week come in w/ questions about the Russian plague case currently in the news, you can tell them: 1) if this is plague (Yersinia pestis), there is nothing unusual about it (a) being in Russia or (b) being the subject of lab research. Plague is worldwide.
The opening of a 2019 study of the 20th-century Soviet system for controlling plague. Citation: Susan D. Jones, Bakyt Atshabar, Boris V. Schmid, Marlene Zuk, Anna Amramina, and Nils Chr. Stenseth. "Living with Plague: Lessons from the Soviet Union's Antiplague Syste," PNAS 116, no. 19 (6 May 2019), 9155-9163, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817339116.
Abstract: Zoonoses, such as plague, are primarily animal diseases that spill over into human populations. While the goal of eradicating such diseases is enticing, historical experience validates abandoning eradication in favor of ecologically based control strategies (which reduce morbidity and mortality to a locally accepted risk level). During the 20th century, one of the most extensive plague-eradication efforts in recorded history was undertaken to enable large-scale changes in land use in the former Soviet Union (including vast areas of central Asia). Despite expending tremendous resources in its attempt to eradicate plague, the Soviet antiplague response gradually abandoned the goal of eradication in favor of plague control linked with developing basic knowledge of plague ecology. Drawing from this experience, we combine new gray-literature sources, historical and recent research, and fieldwork to outline best practices for the control of spillover from zoonoses while minimally disrupting wildlife ecosystems, and we briefly compare the Soviet case with that of endemic plague in the western United States. We argue for the allocation of sufficient resources to maintain ongoing local surveillance, education, and targeted control measures; to incorporate novel technologies selectively; and to use ecological research to inform developing landscape-based models for transmission interruption. We conclude that living with emergent and reemergent zoonotic diseases—switching to control—opens wider possibilities for interrupting spillover while preserving natural ecosystems, encouraging adaptation to local conditions, and usi…
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Joëlle @realrollo-koster.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Pope Leo gave a Golden Rose to Lourdes, I had to say something: theconversation.com/what-1-000-y...
theconversation.com
What 1,000 years of golden roses tell us about popes’ authority and influence, from Leo IX to Leo XIV
Popes have bestowed golden roses on warriors, rulers, women – and, increasingly in recent decades, shrines.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This put me in a brief panic and I had to check the section on black bile in one of my books to make sure I didn't write it!
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Well, that's a lot closer to the likely real number than those who still quote Dan Brown ! as evidence, who said 5 million women were burnt at the stake (yes I know, in a novel, but it pretends to truthiness).
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I spent too long trying to find a camouflaged moth or brown creeper before actually reading your description!
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Today, Oct 4, is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi: the day when you can bring your pets to church for a blessing.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Did my first sea turtle patrol walk of the season. Unseasonably warm so the turtles are probably not getting cold shock yet! Visited with the stinky cormorant colony but not too close.
Photograph of black cormorants hanging out on huge silver boulders at the seashore.   One has its wings spread wide to dry out. Selfie of a curly haired medievalist with salt and pepper hair and beard, green glasses, and black tshirt, on white rocks at the seashore.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
So, is the frog Carter, or Dyspepsia?
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Katherine Weikert @kateweikert.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Come work with us at Winchester! We're hiring a 0.5FTE open-ended contract in pre-1800 English Lit. Details at the link. Deadline 14 October. Please share! Lecturer in English Literature at University of Winchester share.google/2la1PLwY1Tey...
share.google
Lecturer in English Literature at University of Winchester
An opportunity for an academic position as a Lecturer in English Literature is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job openings.
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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 02/10/2026
Butterbutt. An older comic.
A four-panel comic titled "yellow-rumped warbler poem". In panel 1, a yellow-rumped warbler stands on a branch in a late autumn scene, and says "Fall is here." In panel 2, the warbler watches a brown leaf fall to the ground, and says "Winter's near." In panel 3, the warbler faces the viewer as brown leaves fall, and says "Need some cheer?" In panel 4, the warbler is showing its luminous yellow rump, and cheerfully says "See my rear."
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I'm doing something similar, but rather darker: a Golgari plague deck. Every card fits the history of the Black Death or modern epidemiology of plague. There are a lot of disease-themed cards in MTG!
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Only 91 more, keep it going!!
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Bad Hand Books @badhandbooks.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A few years ago, this post of mine went viral (millions and millions of views) and it continues to circulate every few months. It seems to be making the rounds again. Posting it again here in case anyone needs this today. - Doug Murano, Founder & CEO, Bad Hand Books
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Katherine Weikert @kateweikert.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hwaet! Winchester is advertising for a 0.5FTE, open-ended contract in English Lit (pre-1800). Deadline 14 October for applications. Please share this with anyone who might be interested! www.winchester.ac.uk/About-Us/Wor...
winchester.ac.uk
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Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"What the islanders discovered were extensive burial grounds, decorated stonework and early buildings – all the features belonging to a major sixth-century monastery, comparable to the much better known site of Iona a little to the south-west." #MedievalSky www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
theguardian.com
‘Hugely exciting’ finds on tiny Scottish island shed light on spread of Christianity
Community-funded archaeological excavations of ‘really important’ sixth-century monastery also rewrite story of Lismore
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The Medieval Academy of America @medievalacademy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Jobs For Medievalists The Department of History at Johns Hopkins University invites applications for a full-time position in Medieval European and/or Mediterranean History (400-1500) at the rank of Associate Professor (with www.themedievalacademyblog.org/jobs…
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I wonder how he makes his hit lists. I'm not a Shakespearean of any sort.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
He got me twice over the years, and of course cursed me out for not replying. I wonder just how many total have been Tarica’ed?
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Quite a story from my home county. Worth mentioning this is also where Stevie Ray Vaughan crashed and died.
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Dr Jill Whitelock @jillwhitelock.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Migrations. From ‘Ortus sanitatis’ (Mainz: Jacob Meydenbach, 23 June 1491). Inc.3.A.1.8[37] @theulspeccoll.bsky.social cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-INC-...
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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Very cool! The Medieval Academy of America & @uchicagopress.bsky.social have kindly agreed to temporarily lift the paywall on a short essay I published a few months ago: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/.... Dating, dating, dating. Vital for the historian; essential for interdisc. dialogue.
journals.uchicago.edu
The Future of Time: Methodological Dialogues between Philology, Archaeology, and Genomics | Speculum: Vol 101, No 1
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Dr Ben Wilkinson-Turnbull (He/They) 🏳️‍🌈 @benwt.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Call for papers! “Reading Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Religion and Politics: Marginalia and Manuscripts” @rorymaclellan.bsky.social and I are putting together a panel for next year’s SRS conference in London. Deadline for 200 word abstracts is tomorrow Please get in touch and repost!
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I'm currently finishing a critical edition of Henry Daniel's medical compendium, "Aaron Danielis", with Tess Tavormina and Sarah Star. Perhaps will be out late 2027. An amazing work, with over 2000 entries, not just herbal, but culinary, household, chemical, lapidary, lexicographical, hospital, etc.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I hereby elect the Les Mis/Rage Against the Machine mashup quilt for U.S. president. We just need a constitutional amendment to allow textiles to hold office.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Daniel also gives evidence for professional soap making by the "saponarii". He includes lye (lexiva) in his herbal and describes it as "gutta saponarij prima fortis", "first strong flow of the soapmaker". This refers to water dripped (gutta) through wood ashes to make potash lye, necessary for soap.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Much of Henry Daniel's information about manufactured soaps is translated from a twelfth-century Latin herbal from Italy known as "Circa instans", which in turn relied on information from Arabic books and physicians. But the information was still likely relevant and valid in later medieval England.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Many plants contain saponins, organic chemicals that lather in water and can be used like soap. "Soapwort" obviously is one of the best known and soapiest, but soybeans, corn-cockle, baby's breath, also lather. Henry Daniel mentions "crowsoap" often as a soap plant, but I haven't identified it yet.
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Tagging @fakehistoryhunter.net @michellefranklin.bsky.social for medieval bathing
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Some of his Middle English description: "Sapo: sope. Þer is o sope spatanticus & þat is Frenche sope; & sapo note muscat, & hard sope, & nesch sope, qwich is blac sope. Sope is hot & dry. Sope sarazyn, sope spacareus, & Iewes sope þat the wasch with silk, qwich is migthi for brennyng & scaldyng."
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
14th English herbalist Henry Daniel included soap in his herbal, and described French soap, nutmeg soap, soft soap, black soap, "Saracen soap" (i.e. Muslim), soap the Jews use to wash silk. He prescribed it medically with warm water for skin conditions: "scabbe", serpigo, impetigo. #histmed #medhist
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Dr. Black's Medieval Remedies @winstonblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
So much I love here (busy nuns! soapwort marginalia! medieval people kept clean!), but the plant was called "saponaria" not "saponifera". Soapwort was used for washing, but real soap was made in many medieval homes, and imported in large quantities and many varieties.
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Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A carved "pillar-biter" from the church of St. Bavo in Haarlem, from 1509-1517. With roots in Medieval iconography, pillar-biters represented hypocrisy and false piety. More here: www.leidenmedievalistsblog.nl/articles/dev...
A polychrome wooden carving of a man in pilgrim's garb with a priminent rosary grotesquely gnawing on a church column
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