Medical Metaphors in the Thirteenth-Century Sermon Collection of Pécs

Abstract

The Pécs University Sermons were composed at the end of the thirteenth century in Hungary, probably at a studium generale. The sermons contain many references from classical authors and philosophers. Among other things, they use numerous scientific and natural philosophical citations in their argumentation. This article focuses specifically on the medical quotations.

The use of medical motifs in theological argumentation has a long tradition: both the Bible and the Church Fathers drew an analogy between physical and spiritual healing. In the thirteenth century, however, this biblical tradition was transformed as theologians increasingly supplemented the biblical tradition with medical literature. In my paper, I examine how the biblical tradition and medical literature appear in the Pécs University Sermons and with what rhetorical aim medicine is used. Through the exemplary analysis of selected sermons, I present the different rhetorical situations in which medicine appears, and I argue that medical literature is not only used to complement the biblical tradition but that the medical quotations themselves could be the starting point for medical argumentation. I also examine which sources the author used and show that he quotes a lesser-known anatomical source, the Anatomia vivorum.