Osiris, Volume 37: Translating Medicine across Premodern Worlds

Translation played a crucial role in the global exchange of medical theories, practices, and materials in the premodern period. This volume explores how translation shaped and reimagined ideas and objects to fit local frameworks of medical belief, with case studies from diverse contexts. It offers a fresh and innovative approach to histories of knowledge.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 20 July 2022
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

The significance of translation in facilitating the global exchange of medical theories, practices, and materials during the premodern period cannot be overstated. The understanding of the human body, as well as diseases and their treatments, was profoundly shaped by a multitude of religious, cultural, environmental, and intellectual factors. As a result, intricate systems of translation emerged to facilitate the sharing of knowledge across linguistic and territorial boundaries. This exchange extended not only to theories and concepts but also to materials such as drugs, amulets, and surgical tools.

The studies presented in this volume shed light on how instances of translation played a crucial role in shaping and, in some cases, reimagining these ideas and objects to align with local frameworks of medical belief. By examining case studies situated in geographically and temporally diverse contexts, including ninth-century Baghdad, sixteenth-century Seville, seventeenth-century Cartagena, and nineteenth-century Bengal, the contributors explore common themes and divergent experiences associated with various historical endeavors to "translate" knowledge about health and the body across languages, practices, and media.

Through the deconstruction of traditional narratives and the de-emphasis of well-worn dichotomies, this volume offers a fresh and innovative approach to histories of knowledge. It highlights the complex interplay between language, culture, and medicine, emphasizing the ways in which translation acted as a catalyst for the dissemination and transformation of medical knowledge across different regions and eras. By examining the complexities and nuances of translation, this volume provides valuable insights into the ways in which premodern societies approached health and illness, and how they sought to navigate the challenges of knowledge transmission and adaptation in a rapidly changing world.

Dimension: 254 x 171 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226821566