Senior Fellows' Society webinar - Surgeons and the Black Death

Join us at 5pm on Monday 28 September for a webinar with our Henry Lumley Collections Engagement Grant holder, Thomas Banbury, exploring how medieval practitioners sought to understand and treat plague during one of Europe's greatest public health crises.

Thomas challenges the common perception that medieval medicine was driven by superstition alone and highlights the evolving relationship between medical knowledge, botanical science and public health. Drawing on rare treatises, herbals, surgical manuals and more from RCS England's archive collections, he'll reveal how surgeons used observation, experience and classical learning to shape responses in a period of immense uncertainty.

The webinar follows Thomas's online exhibition on the subject, which offers fresh insight into the role of surgeons during the Black Death, including the contributions of key medical figures such as Guy de Chauliac.

Together, the webinar and exhibition invite you to reconsider the complexity and adaptability of medieval medicine in the face of the Black Death.

Tickets for this webinar are free for members of the Senior Fellows' Society.

*Image: A physician takes the pulse of a plague patient, while his attendants carry long fumigation torches. From Johannes de Ketham’s Fasciculus medicinae (1495) RCS LIBRARY / SR / INCUN 2(2).