To heal or exorcise, Secrets and remedies of the ancient healers

In the past, cities entrusted the health of their inhabitants to barbers and surgeons. The countryside preferred healers, even if their activities have always fed suspicion. The curiosity of our contemporaries is alive for these health recipes from the depths of the ages. Jean-Claude Diedler reveals the content and the mechanism of these remedies, still used in some places. This book is based on authentic collections of healing and exorcism secrets, entrusted by families of healers. Jean-Claude Diedler has transcribed these manuscripts to make them accessible. They bear witness to a time when everyone's life was threatened by the schemes of spellcasters. Illness was never a matter of chance, whether it was due to a given evil (the result of magical poisoning) or to a saint's evil (having a natural origin). By looking at magical gestures and substances, but also at prayers and religious symbols, the author highlights the very structure of secrets. The second part of the book summarizes these healing recipes. The secrets and remedies are confronted with their medical potentialities and related to the imaginary that gave rise to them. They are classified according to the nature of the substances used. Each category is introduced by an explanatory analysis of the methods used, whether to heal a burn, whiten teeth or soothe the pain of childbirth. Throughout these pages, the result of an exemplary work of research and analysis, enter into the confidence of the secret makers.

271 pages