14th Century

The record of a ‘physick hall’ [physick being the term for the practice of pre-modern medicine] in the University Chancellor’s Book for the early 1300s attests that medical sciences have been taught at the University of Oxford for more than seven centuries.

14th century dissection.jpg

_{14th century dissection © Wellcome Trust}

In c. 1310, the Oxford doctor John of Gaddesden published the "Rosa Anglica", Britain’s earliest surviving medical textbook. Gaddesden is believed to have been the model for Chaucer’s ‘Doctour of Phisik’ in "The Canterbury Tales".

Decorative example page from Rosa Anglica

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