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SUMMARY:A plague from on high? Comets\, disease and meteorology in late me
 dieval England - Tom Banbury (Department of History and Philosophy of Scie
 nce)
DTSTART:20241014T120000Z
DTEND:20241014T130000Z
UID:TALK222997@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:119581
DESCRIPTION:The appearance of comets was often considered to presage momen
 tous events on Earth\, such as the deaths of kings\, defeat in battle\, an
 d oncoming natural disasters. With the arrival of the Black Death in the 1
 4th century\, comets and other fiery phenomena were co-opted as one of man
 y ways of predicting the spread of the disease. However\, there is more to
  the association between shooting stars and pestilence than simply ominous
  signs.\n\nBuilding on the work of Sara Schechner\, I explore the relation
 ship between cometary appearances and medicine in the late medieval period
 \, analysing what learned authorities and popular culture considered comet
 s to be formed from\, and how this related to the spread of disease. While
  the intersections between health and astronomy have mostly been examined 
 from the perspective of astrological medicine and iatromathematics\, this 
 episode in the history of the Plague suggests strong links between the mat
 erial elements of meteorology\, and of the human body.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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