Cambridge University Library is set to publish more than 180 medieval medical manuscripts online as part of the Curious Cures project. The two-year initiative will digitise, catalogue and conserve the texts, which include bizarre remedies such as baking an owl and stuffing a puppy with snails.
The treatments, drawn from the collections of the University Library, Fitzwilliam Museum and a dozen Cambridge colleges, offer a glimpse into medieval healthcare. For gout, one recipe recommends baking an owl, grinding it into a powder, or stuffing a puppy with snails and sage royal, roasting it over a fire, and using the fat to make a salve.
To treat cataracts, described as a 'web in the eye', a remedy suggests mixing the gall bladder of a hare with honey and applying it to the eye with a feather over three nights. Project leader James Freeman noted that while these cures may seem strange, they address ailments still common today, such as headaches, toothache, diarrhoea, coughs and aching limbs.
Freeman said: 'For all their complexities, medieval medical recipes are very relatable to modern readers. They show medieval people trying to manage their health with the knowledge that was available to them at the time - just as we do. Behind each recipe, however distantly, there lies a human story: experiences of illness and of pain, but also the desire to live and to be healthy.'
