Vienna: Johann Winterburg, [before 1495]
Bloodletting was used across medieval Europe to redress imbalances between the four humours (black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm). Its use was controlled by complex rules, dependent on the cycle of the moon and the age and location of the patient. Consequently, broadside almanacs providing suitable dates for bloodletting and other forms of purging were produced for specific places with a finite lifespan. This unique example was for use in Budapest in the year 1495. At the end of the allotted year such broadsides ceased to be efficacious, so there was no pragmatic reason for their owners to preserve them.
Inc. Broadsides.0[4100]
Bloodletting was used prophylactically to maintain health and therapeutically to treat established disease. Following the Hippocratic theory of the ancient Greeks, in medieval Europe it was believed that many illnesses were a consequence of imbalance of the four humours – black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm – and bloodletting was a method believed
to remove excess humours and return the balance to normal. It was also used to try and stop bleeding from a wound, as bloodletting from the opposite side of the body was thought to reverse the flow of blood away from the injury.
In Europe until the twelfth century it was performed by general medical practitioners known in Latin as medici. After that time specialist bloodletters (minutores) performed the task along with barbers (barberi), leaving the more educated doctors (physici and cyrurgici) to make the diagnosis and decide the treatment plan.
Bloodletting was performed most commonly by opening a vein at the front of the elbow, but it was permissible to use any of over thirty specified veins in the head, arms or legs. After undergoing bloodletting, the patient was strengthened with a nourishing diet for one or two days. The complex medieval rules for safe bloodletting included never bleeding children or the very weak, and bleeding the elderly only if plethoric.
The new moon was thought to be a time when the body was weak, so lunar calendars could be consulted to help decide the safest time for the procedure. The amount of blood removed depended upon the strength of the patient, and the appearance of the blood produced. Medieval manuscripts show how bloodletting at the wrong time after the onset of a fever was believed to lead to deterioration or death.
Broadside almanacs were produced with a limited lifespan, by their very nature; the example here gives the user suitable dates for bloodletting and other forms of purging for the year 1495 in Budapest. After the year had passed, there was no pragmatic reason for the owner to keep it, so of the some 500 broadside almanac editions known to have been printed, most
survive in only a few copies. The user would need to obtain another calendar the following year, and one specific to their geographic location, to ensure the most accurate information and thus the greatest chance of safe treatment.
Essay by Dr Piers D. Mitchell
