Skip Knox submitted a new blog post:
History for Fantasy Writers: Barber Surgeons
by E.L. Skip Knox
One of the more interesting trades in the Middle Ages was that of a barber, sometimes also called a barber-surgeon. You can tell just from the title that we're dealing with more than just trimming hair.
Barbers did cut hair, of course. The word itself comes from the Latin word for beard (barba), and barbers had not only to know how to cut but also how to cut in the current style. Merely cutting hair (facial or head) was regarded as simple work, appropriate for a journeyman. Surgery belonged to the masters.
A master barber's most frequent surgical task was to set broken bones. He had in his shop an array of alarming-looking instruments for this. The other frequent surgical task was to treat wounds, usually by cauterizing them. The instruments for doing this looked nearly as grim, as you can see by these illustrations.
Because of his experience in these areas, the master barber could expect to find himself drafted as a field surgeon in the town's militia. There he extracted arrows, sewed up wounds, and so on. If necessary, he could also perform amputations.
The position of barber was tainted socially because he worked with blood. Anyone who worked with or around blood (butchers, for example, or executioners) could not be regarded as fully honorable. I shall write about what "honorable" meant in a...
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.
History for Fantasy Writers: Barber Surgeons
by E.L. Skip Knox
One of the more interesting trades in the Middle Ages was that of a barber, sometimes also called a barber-surgeon. You can tell just from the title that we're dealing with more than just trimming hair.
Barbers did cut hair, of course. The word itself comes from the Latin word for beard (barba), and barbers had not only to know how to cut but also how to cut in the current style. Merely cutting hair (facial or head) was regarded as simple work, appropriate for a journeyman. Surgery belonged to the masters.
A master barber's most frequent surgical task was to set broken bones. He had in his shop an array of alarming-looking instruments for this. The other frequent surgical task was to treat wounds, usually by cauterizing them. The instruments for doing this looked nearly as grim, as you can see by these illustrations.
Because of his experience in these areas, the master barber could expect to find himself drafted as a field surgeon in the town's militia. There he extracted arrows, sewed up wounds, and so on. If necessary, he could also perform amputations.
The position of barber was tainted socially because he worked with blood. Anyone who worked with or around blood (butchers, for example, or executioners) could not be regarded as fully honorable. I shall write about what "honorable" meant in a...
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.