Abstract
The Old English version of the legend of St. Veronica gives, near the beginning, a description of one Tyrus, Roman governor of the province of Aquitania under the emperor Tiberius: “his countenance … was badly disfigured: þœt adl þe we hataþ cancer was in his face, extending from the right nostril as far as the eye”.1 The phrase þœt adl þe we hataþ cancer, which with some caution we can translate as ‘the disease that we call cancer’, may come as a surprise to those who know Johann Geldner’s study of Old English disease nomenclature, in which he claimed that cancer, a Latin loanword into Old English, owed its assimilation into Old English to the Anglo-Saxon physicians’ familiarity with Greek and Latin medical treatises; it appears, he says, only in the Old English medical texts and did not enter the lay vocabulary until the time of the Norman Conquest.2 And yet the word is here, in a pre-Conquest saint’s life, embedded in a phrase suggesting that, whatever this disease is, cancer is the term that the author and his audience would normally use for it. (The words “that we call” are not in the Latin source, which simply says Tyrus vulnus habebat… propter cancrum, ‘had a sore… caused by cancer’.)3
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
“Legende von der Heiligen Veronica (Vindicta Salvatoris)”, in Angelsächsische Homilien und Heiligenleben, ed. B. Assmann, Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa 3 (Kassel 1889; repr. with intro. by P. Clemoes, Darmstadt 1964), p. 181 (VSal 1 [Ass 16] 6). This and subsequent notes contain in parentheses, where relevant, the OE short title references now standard in the field. They are described in A. diP. Healey and R. L. Venezky, The List of Texts and Index of Editions, which accompanies A Microfiche Concordance to Old English (Toronto 1980).
The short titles were originally devised by Bruce Mitchell, Christopher Ball, and Angus Cameron and published in Anglo-Saxon England (henceforth ASE) 4 (1975) 207–21, with addenda and corrigenda in ASE 8 (1979) 331–33.
J. Geldner, Untersuchung einiger altenglischer Krankheitsnamen, I (A–C) (Würzburg 1906), p. 38.
H. J. de Vriend, ed., The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de quadrupedibus, Early English Text Society (henceforth EETS) o.s. 286 (Oxford 1984), glossary s.v. cancer.
A. C. Amos, A. diP. Healey et al., Dictionary of Old English, Fascicle C (Toronto 1988), s.v. cancer.
Leechbook I and II, in Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcrafl of Early England, ed. T. O. Cockayne, Rolls Series 35, vol. II (London 1865, repr. New York 1965), pp. 1–298; Leechbook III, pp. 300–60.
R.T. Oliphant, ed., The Harley Latin-Old English Glossary (The Hague 1966), C 199 (H1G1 [Oliphant] 799).
In addition to the texts mentioned in nn. 4 and 7 above, works called the Peri didaxeon ‘Concerning Schools of Medicine’ (ed. Max Löweneck in Erlanger Beiträge zur englischen Philologie 12 [Erlangen 1896]) and Lacnunga (ed. J. H. G. Grattan and Charles Singer in Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine [London 1952]) make up most of these one thousand pages. For further details, see Linda E. Voigts, “Anglo-Saxon Plant Remedies and the Anglo-Saxons”, Isis 70 (1979 no. 252) 250–51.
M. L. Cameron, “The Sources of Medical Knowledge in Anglo-Saxon England”, ASE 11 (1983) 135–55; and “Bald’s Leechbook: Its Sources and their Use in its Compilation”, ASE 12 (1983) 153–82.
These include the Latin version of Practica Alexandri yatros Greci (London 1504; this work contains extracts from the works of Philumenus and Philagrius, which are separately printed by T. Puschmann, ed., Nachträge zu Alexander Trallianus: Fragmente aus Philumenus und Philagrius, etc., Berliner Studien 5 [Berlin 1886], pp. 16–129)
the writings of Vindicianus, Theodore Priscianus, and pseudo-Theodore (ed. V. Rose, Theodori Prisciani Euporiston libri III cum Physicorum fragmento et additamentis pseudo-Theodoris, accedunt Vindiciani Afri quae feruntur Reliquiae [Leipzig 1874]); the Liber Aurelii and the Liber Esculapii (found in Cambridge MS. Peterhouse 251, fols 158v-186r; these works are epitomes of the works of Caelius Aurelianus); and the work known as the Liber tertius (also in Peterhouse 251, fols 142v–158r).
U. C. Bussemaker and C. Daremberg, eds, Oeuvres d’Oribase, 6 vols (Paris 1856–76). Vols V and VI (the latter ed. A. Molinier) contain the Greek texts of the Synopsis and Euporistes along with “old” and “new” Latin translations.
M. Niedermann, ed., Marcelli de medicamentis liber, rev. E. Liechtenhan, 2 vols, Corpus medicorum Latinorum 5 (Berlin 1968).
Pliny, Natural History, ed. W. H. S. Jones, bks 20–32 (vols VI–VIII), Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass. 1951–63).
A. Önnerfors, ed., Physica Plinii Bambergensis (Cod. Bamb. med 2, fol. 93v–232r) (Hildesheim 1975).
A. Önnerfors, ed., Plinii Secundi lunioris qui feruntur de medicina libri tres, Corpus medicorum Latinorum 3 (Berlin 1964).
Contained in Cambridge MS. Peterhouse 251 (St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, 2nd half, 11th century, fols 129v–142v; the MS is listed in H. Gneuss, “A Preliminary List of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1100”, ASE 9 (1981) 13, no. 145.
Celsus, De medicina, ed. W. G. Spencer, 3 vols, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass. 1971–79). There are many specific references to Celsus in Pliny’s text. Celsus’s own work was virtually unknown in the Middle Ages.
For a summary of Galen’s descriptions of cancer, see S. Retsas, “On the Antiquity of Cancer: From Hippocrates to Galen”, in Paleo-Oneology: The Antiquity of Cancer, ed. Retsas (London 1986), pp. 41–53.
Although Petrocellus ch. 164 shares some statements with Liber secundus ch. 24 (Passionarius Galeni 5.45), it also incorporates some discussion of gangrene, which seems to be drawn from Liber secundus ch. 23 (Pass. Galen. 5.44). Gangrene and cancer seem often to have been confused: see C.T. Lewis and C. Short, A Latin Dictionary (Oxford 1879), s.v. gangraena.
J. L. Heiberg, ed., Glossae medicinales, Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, hist.-filol. Meddelelser 9.1 (Copenhagen 1924), pp. 14–15 s.v. cancer.
C. H. Talbot, Medicine in Medieval England (London 1967), pp. 19–20.
Hippocrates, De mulierum affectibus, in Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate, Greek text and trans. E. Littré, vol. VIII (Paris 1853), p. 283.
E.g. Bald’s Leechbook I, 44.2, p. 109 (Lch II [1] 44.2.1) recommends two salves to be applied one after the other: the first calls for burning sulphur in a copper pot, rubbing it to dust, sifting it through a cloth, and mixing it with old soap and a moderate amount of honey; this is to be applied to the wound and covered with a mallow leaf. When the ulcer begins to heal, a second concoction is to be applied to the borders where they are still red; it consists of wood sorrel, houseleek (? or periwinkle), and woodruff, boiled in butter. Although they would be powerless against a true cancer, such procedures may have been quite effective in healing non-malignant sores: the drying properties of sulphur, the cleansing properties of soap and the bactericidal properties of honey would all have been beneficial; the leaves and flowers of the common mallow used to be ingredients in poultices; juice made from the leaves of wood sorrel and bruised leaves of woodruff have long been considered effective in reducing inflammation. (See M. Grieve, A Modern Herbal [Harmondsworth 1980], pp. 509, 752, 854
G. Majno, The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World [Cambridge, Mass. 1975], pp. 115–20.)
For a discussion of the average age of death of Anglo-Saxon populations and of the methodology used to arrive at the statistics, see C. Wells, “Discussion of the Skeletal Remains: Human and Animal Bones”, and H. Cayton, “Some Contributions from the Written Sources”, both in “Excavations at North Elmham Park 1967–72”, East Anglian Archaeology Report no. 9, ed. P. Wade-Martins (1980), esp. pp. 249–54, 291, 303–14.
Wells and Cayton point out that studies done years ago must now be regarded as inconclusive; e.g. see those cited by Santiago Genoves, “Estimation of Age and Mortality”, in Science in Archaeology, ed. Don Brothwell and Eric Higgs (London 1963), p. 355.
W. W. Skeat, ed., Ælfric’s Lives of Saints, EETS o.s. 76, 82 (London 1881–85, repr. in 1 vol. 1966), p. 165, 11. 283–86 (ÆLS [Maur] 283–6).
Gregoire le Grand, Dialogues, ed. A. de Vogüé, vol. III (Paris 1980), 4.14.3.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1992 Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Thompson, P. (1992). The Disease That We Call Cancer. In: Campbell, S., Hall, B., Klausner, D. (eds) Health, Disease and Healing in Medieval Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21882-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21882-0_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-21884-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-21882-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)