Jews, Medicine, and Medieval Society (review)

Reviewed by: Jews, Medicine, and Medieval Society Luis García-Ballester Joseph Shatzmiller. Jews, Medicine, and Medieval Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994. xi + 241 pp. $40.00. Joseph Shatzmiller is a well-known social historian of Jewish medieval medicine, with a special interest in the medieval Mediterranean Latin societies—particularly that of Provence, whose documentary archives he knows quite well. After a brief general introduction about the social position of Jewish physicians in late medieval European society (the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries), Shatzmiller devotes a detailed discussion to the following topics: First, Jews and the medicalization of late medieval society (he understands “medicalization”—a modern term with many meanings—as the growing demand for medical care by the new urban European society). Second, the training of Jewish medical practitioners. All evidence shows that private education with a physician was the most common method of training, carried out within a family framework in a pattern similar to that of the more numerous Christian practitioners. European society was controlled by Christians who monopolized the studia generalia, where non-Christians were in principle excluded. The Latin faculties of medicine seem to have been particularly effective centers of learning, to judge both from the quality and quantity of knowledge they generated and from the achievements of particular individuals trained there. However, the university system was still inadequate to turn out the number of healers (I would not like to call them “professionals”) necessary to meet the demands of late-medieval society. A university title—which was difficult to obtain but could bring with it social appreciation and the possibility of charging higher fees—was sought after by Jews, and [End Page 701] some of them (as Shatzmiller proves) were successful in their quest. Third, the learning of Jewish medical practitioners. Shatzmiller looks at the role played by medical books in their education, paying particular attention to the languages used by Jewish medical practitioners: Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and vernacular languages (Provençal, Catalan, Castilian, Tuscan, etc.). Jewish intellectuals were aware of the importance of gaining a mastery of languages in order to have access to the contents of medical “science” (Galenism), a common intellectual property of all three Mediterranean cultures (Jewish, Muslim, and Christian). The fourth area explored in detail by Shatzmiller comprises the success of medical careers and social perceptions of Jewish medical practitioners. Success in a Christian context meant not only achieving medical recognition or monetary compensation, but also attaining social prestige and serving as models or sources of inspiration to young Jewish people, as Shatzmiller shows with a series of case histories. But Jewish medical practitioners were also rejected, not only because they failed in their practice but because they were Jewish. Under these two apparently contradictory aspects (reputation and rejection), the healer-patient relationship in medieval culture molded by religion is studied. Personal illnesses suffered by Jewish or Christian people created a special situation that erased all boundaries created by religion: both Jews and Christians without distinction were attended by Jewish or Christian physicians. Medieval Christian society created a legal system based on Roman law, which protected individual rights, and Jewish medical practitioners knew quite well how to use the legal machinery that regulated their medical activity. The healer-patient relationship is a very interesting window through which to view the complex relations between members of two cultures who lived together in both conflictual and peaceful ways. Detailed notarial records (in Italy, Sicily, Provence, and the Crown of Aragon) allow the author to study this complexity through individual cases; the same sources allow him to discover in detail how Jewish practitioners were hired by Christian municipalities, and also to make estimates of the numbers of Jewish and Christian medical practitioners in medieval south European society. Shatzmiller deduces a high healer-to-inhabitant ratio, almost 1:450—but it must be borne in mind that in this period there did not exist a credible census. Jews figure prominently in these statistics, representing (the author estimates) between 68 percent (the island of Crete under Venetian rule, 1365–97), 54 percent (Marseilles, 1350–99), and 36 percent (Saragossa, fifteenth century) of the healer population. The quantitative presence of Jewish

Ancient history · Fifteenth · Judaism · Medicalization · Middle Ages · Sociology · Classics · History · Medicine · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy · Religious studies