Abstract/Summary

This thesis investigates the understanding of the mind and brain, and of mental and neurological disorders and their treatment, given in the work of Constantine the African. Constantine translated and imported sophisticated texts of Galenic and Islamicate medicine to the West, but while much has been written about him, the actual content of this medicine has been surprisingly neglected. Following new translation work, this thesis analyses the new theoretical base Constantine’s works presented, with his account of the anatomy and physiology of the brain. It gives his descriptions of the disorders of frenzy, forgetfulness and lethargy, apoplexy, epilepsy, melancholia, and lovesickness, with their symptoms, causation, and treatment recommendations. Many of these conditions, and treatment methods from this period, have been generally under-researched. This research explores the impact of Constantine’s work in England, from 1100 onwards. It first offers a comprehensive view of pre-Conquest understandings and treatments of mental disorders, based on Old English medical writings and new translations of often-neglected Latin medical texts. Data from booklists, wills and extant manuscripts, then support a new account of the dissemination of Constantine’s works in England. Constantine’s writings on ‘disorders of the head’ are compared to the previous ideas and treatments; the legacy of his work is then traced in subsequent English medical writing. This has revealed the role his translations had at a critical period of evolution in such ideas and treatments. His works promoted the importance of theory and the understanding of causation, and asserted the brain as the seat of cognition. Their new, naturalistic explanations and cures were to be highly influential. This case study illuminates our understanding of Constantine’s wider influence on English institutions, education, medicine, scientific and philosophical thought, literature and culture.