Sara Ritchey

A deeply fascinating and thought-provoking book, Acts of Care explores the intersection of religious and medical practices in a recovery of healthcare work undertaken by "holy women" (nuns, beguines, etc) in the late medieval southern Low Countries. Sara Ritchey undertakes a close reading of sources—healing prayers, saint's lives, birthing indulgences and more—which have long been thought of by historians as religious texts rather medical/therapeutic ones. She argues that women were far more central to therapeutic practices/construction of contemporary medical knowledge than has previously been recognised, or even than the sources easily allow us to reconstruct. Particularly for me the first section of this book is hugely valuable in terms of the methodological innovations it suggests—there are many bursts of '!!!' in the notes I was taking as I read.… (plus d'informations)