Dr. Kira Robison, shown in her Brock Hall office, is an associate professor of history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
photo by Angela Foster/UTC
In the Middle Ages, some physicians used what are known as medico-magical methods that included charms to heal or ward off illnesses, healing incantations and religious prayers.
Palm and face reading also were tools used by physicians in the Middle Ages, "a way for physicians to understand on the outside of the body what is happening on the inside of the body," said Dr. Kira Robison, associate professor of history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Dr.
Robison isn't a hardcore proponent of blending medicine and magic, but she said she is fascinated by it.
In her first book, "Healers in the Making: Students, Physicians and Medical Education in Medieval Bologna (1250-1550)," published in 2020, she wrote about the teaching of medicine and science through the writings of physicians Girolamo Manfredi (1430-1493) and Alessandro Achilli (1463-1512), both of whom taught medicine and philosophy at the University of Bologna in Italy and wrote extensively on the subjects. She also studied the writings of their student, Jacopo Berengario da Carpi (1460-1530), who taught surgery and anatomy.
During the fall 2022 semester, Dr. Robison used professional development time to leave the classroom and begin work on her second book. The project explores the medico-magical practices of face- and palm-reading, which medieval physicians used for various purposes—such as developing long-term prognoses for patients or providing the means of identifying evil through examination of exterior bodily features and associating those features with the state of the soul.