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Travelers have always faced health hazards when far from home. Medieval people were no exception. Pilgrims, crusaders and others were warned by preachers such as 13th-century Jacques de Vitry of “dangers on land, dangers at sea, the dangers of thieves, the dangers of predators, the dangers of battles.
” There were also dangers to health: disease, lack of good nutrition and water, injury, accident and poisoning. Medieval travelers were active and innovative in trying to prevent ill health while away. Although the adjective “medieval” continues to be used disparagingly to imply backwardness in medical and scientific knowledge, this history of preventive medicine shows us something different.
From good sleep to ‘good’ leeches One especially interesting set of practical health care instructions for travelers is the “ De regimine et via itineris et fine peregrinatium” (“About the regimen and way of the journey for the traveler”). The text was composed by Adam of Cremona in about 1227–28 for the German emperor Frederick II, who was about to set out on crusade. Unedited and surviving in a single manuscript , Adam draws heavily on Ibn Sina’s 11th-century Canon of Medicine, used for medi.
