“Docente natura”. Mélanges de médecine ancienne et médiévale offerts à Guy Sabbah

in the birth process" (p. 3) and, as one of the manuscripts acknowledges explicidly, there are questions that "every whoman knowyth" (p. 36). There is one final point I should like to raise. Expressions that might imply a valuejudgement, while projecting modem knowledge onto the past, should be used with care. Medieval texts on healthcare often record practices which may seem absurd to a modem reader. Nevertheless, it is not the role ofthe historian to question people's beliefs but, on the contrary, to explore their historical meaning, especially when they have been widely recorded in other sources. In my view, qualifying as "good sense" or "good judgement" (p. 32) the scribal decision to omit "superstitious passages" is a historiographical error ofperspective that, besides, does not offer a satisfactory answer to the real meaning of the omission. However, apart from these minor differences with Barratt's approach, I believe that the publication ofthis book is extremely valuable for the history of women's healthcare in the Middle Ages. It provides us with new, painstakingly edited material and the scholarly resources ofthe general and textual introductions and the glossary.