Жизнь В Средневековом Городе

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Англоязычная книжка, авторства Джозефа Джайза.

Стиль хороший, пример: "в завершение своей исключительной карьеры, граф Эд погиб так, как и жил: от меча, а возможно - и от боевого топора, поскольку его вдове удалось опознать тело лишь по родинке".

Интересные факты, например, об эмансипации по-средневековому: "Когда в 1266-м году папа Урбан IV решил построить церковь на месте мастерской своего отца, башмачника, Одетта де Пюжи, абатисса Нотр-Дам-о-Ноннэ, на чьих землях находилась мастерская, напала ночью во главе отряда солдат на стройку и полностью таковую разрушила."

А отрывок о средневековых "врачах" дам полностью.
In a city the size of Troyes there are fewer than half a dozen licensed doctors, not counting the numerous midwives, barbers, monks, and outright quacks who practice medicine or some branch of it. The trained physician is an aristocrat of professionals, enjoying high status and excellent fees. His practice is naturally confined to the better class, as the medical texts and treatises make clear.

One such treaties recommends interrogating the servant who has come to fetch the doctor, so that "if you can learn nothing from examining the patient, you still may astonish him with your knowledge of the case". At the patient's house the well advised doctor conducts himself with a certain ceremony. In the sick room he bows, seats himself, and drawing a sand-glass from his bag takes the patient's pulse. He requests a sample of urine, which he sniffs and tastes for sugar. In case of a gross infection he examines the urine for sediment. He inquires about the patient's diet and stool, and then delivers a discourse on the disease. The stomach, he may explain, is a cauldron in which food is cooked. If it is filled too full, it will boil over and the food remain uncooked. The liver supplies the heat for this interior furnace. The humors must be kept in balance - phlegm, blood, bile and black bile, which are respectively cold and moist, hot and moist, hot and dry, and cold and dry. Fevers are tertian, quartan, daily, hectic, and pestilential. Which kind is present can be determined by the pattern of recurrence, whether every third day, or every fourth, and whether it grows more severe. Recovery depends on many things, including the phases of the moon and the position of the constellations.

On quitting the sick chamber, the doctor may assure the patient that recovery will soon come with God's help; but with the family, he cannily adopts a graver tone, implying that he did not wish to alarm the sufferer, but that it is a lucky thing that science was called in. He may leave a prescription of herbs and drugs, and recommend diet - perhaps chicken broth, the milk of pulverized almonds, or barley water mixed with figs, honey, and licorice.

Often the doctor is invited to dine with the family. He accepts, without seeming too eager. During the course of the meal he may entertain the table with accounts of illnesses and wounds he has cured, but he makes sure to send a servant two or three times to ask the patient how he fares, thus reassuring him that he has not been forgotten.