The Power of Words: Studies on Charms and Charming in Europe

Chapter VI The Marginality of Charms in Medieval England

Chapter VI The Marginality of Charms in Medieval England Lea Olsan At the bottom of a page in a fourteenth-century copy of Gilbert the Englishman’s academic medical book, a reader has written the following charm: Take these two verses and tie them on the right arm with the Lord’s Prayer. And these [verses] are, “Amara. tum. taturi. postos. sicalos. sicaluri. Ely. poli. caritas. polyly. pilinique. linarras.”1 This charm, introduced as a practical cure (empericum) for mania, is added to copies of Gilbert’s influential thirteenth-century Compendium medicine. The lengthy and learned medical treatise itself contains only ten charms within the text.2 The marginal placement is in one sense characteristic of medieval academic medicine. Some medical authorities rejected charms in 1 “Empericum. In hiis egritudinibus est mania. Accipiantur isti duo versus et ligentur in dextro brachio cum oracione dominica. et sunt hii. Amara. tum. taturi. postos. sicalos. sicaluri. /Ely. poli. caritas. polyly. pilinique . linarras .” A small cross appears above each word of the charm in Oxford, New College MS 165, fol. 70 bottom margin in a late fourteenth-century hand. I am grateful to M. McVaugh for bringing this charm to my attention. I wish to thank N. van Loo, Librarian of New College, Oxford, for facilitating my access to the manuscript. 2 On Gilbert’s charms, see McVaugh 2003, 319–45, and Olsan 2003, 343–66. 136 THE POWER OF WORDS theory because they were not based on reason or natural causation;3 others included them occasionally, but expressed doubts about their efficacy. Gilbert was one of these latter. From the thirteenth century, medieval medicine was based on the rationalist thinking of Galenic medicine, reinvigorated by an influx of Latin translations of Arabic commentaries on Aristotle and ancient medicine. This Scholastic medicine emphasised humoral understanding of disease and a strict rationalism that entailed the suppression of traditional healing modes— although a few charms circulated among highly reputed doctors, who authorised their use through their attribution to named famous physicians . In principle, medical therapies like charms were associated with “empirics” and “old women” and were consequently rejected. At the same time, famous doctors and teachers of medicine like Gilbert did in fact document charms to treat wounds, bleeding of various kinds, epilepsy, impotence and a few other problems, on the basis that some remedies might be effective even though they were not derived from humoral principles. The amuletic charm for mania in the Oxford manuscript seems especially appropriate to a learned medical text: it consists of “two verses” that, although nonsensical, sound like Latin, the language of Gilbert’s text. Amara. tum. taturi. postos. sicalos. siculari. Ely. poli. caritas. polyly. pilinique. linarras. When spoken aloud the rhyming syllables in the half-lines (tatu-ri/sicula -ri and carit-as/linarr-as), the alliteration (“t” and “s” in the first line; “l” and “p” in the second) and the alteration of vowel sounds combine two rhythmical lines, each with a pause in the middle. Moreover , the words caritas and Ely have Christian roots as the Latin for “charity” and the Greek word “eleison” (have mercy) or the Gospel word “Eli” in Christ’s last words on the cross, and “sicalos sicaluri” echoes the liturgical phrase “secula seculorum” meaning “world without end”, so that the nonsensical formula when spoken sounds 3 Famously, Guy de Chauliac, Bernard of Gordon and Arnau of Vilanova, although their attitudes were complex and varied from time to time. See McVaugh 2003, 320–22, 329 and 336, and Olsan 2003, 349 and 352–53. 137 The Marginality of Charms in Medieval England vaguely benedictional. The impenetrable words convey a sense of secrecy and suggest that the formula itself deploys an occult power (virtus).4 An empericum such as this treatment for mental disorder lacked a rational, humoral explanation for its efficacy, but could be theoretically justified for use in learned medicine through its particular virtus: that is to say, its “specific property”, its secret power, proven by its previous effectiveness. Cures that relied on occult properties were understood to be unique; their efficacy depended not on their known qualities and properties, but on unseen forces. Secondly, if a wellreputed physician or surgeon witnessed to a charm or prayer’s efficacy by recording it in his book, then it was more likely to be accepted and passed on by another doctor. Scholastic medicine proudly depended on and was quick to cite worthy...