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Magic, religion and science have been connected in their development from the beginning of mankind - a field already widely treated in Lynn Thorndike's History of Magic and Experimental Science. Thorndike maintains that "Magicians were perhaps the first to experiment; and that the history of both magic and experimental science can be better understood by studying them together". According to Thorndike, the ancient Greeks, primarily Hippocrates in medicine, Aristotle in biology and Euclid and Archimedes in mathematics and physics, are believed to be the first to present us with classified collection of observed facts concerning nature.1 Nevertheless, from the Ancient Greek philosophers to some of the leading Latin scholars of the late medieval period centuries later, people believed either themselves or others were capable of magical healing powers.
The ability to cure various sicknesses with ointments and tonics made from "good herbs" and spices gained much popularity during the mid to late Middle Ages. A wide variety of literary fiction, including, among others, Tristan and Isolt, the Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, was written in Christian Europe, dealing with the healing arts and the real or imagined properties of the human body, elements, beasts, herbs, stones, secrets and marvels. The art of healing and native medicine was equally highly regarded by the vast majority of the population, aristocracy and commoners alike, and apparently, was popular amongst some poets. One thirteenth-century poet Rutebeuf (d. 1285) mocks the herbalists who stand in every comer and promise to cure every possible illness:
"Good people" said he, "I am not one of those poor herbalists who stand in front of churches with their miserable ill sawn cloak; who carry boxes and sachets and spread out a carpet. Know that I am not one of these; but I belong to a lady whose name is Madame Trote of Salerno, who makes a kerchief of her ears, and whose eyebrows hang down in silver chains behind her shoulders. Know that she is the wisest lady that is in all the four parts of the world. My lady sends us into different lands and countries, into Apulia, Calabria, Burgundy, into the forest of Ardennes to kill wild beasts in order to extract good ointments from them, and give medicine to those who...