Method
Carolyn Dinshaw writes, in Getting Medieval, that “the modern is not characterized as simply different from the medieval, but is touched by the medieval, and the medieval is touched by the modern; the absolute opposition cannot hold, the past cannot be used simply to ground the present” (43). Although Dinshaw’s statement is part of a much larger argument that can cause literal throw-downs among medievalists and queer theorists alike, her point is still the same: the connection between past and present is of immense value to cultural studies and everyday political life.
Would this medieval recipe against the plague really work today? Probably not (though as Bald's Leechbook shows, you never know). More importantly for this project, however, taking an interest in a medieval manuscript—not simply for its “well known” or canonical texts, but for the eccentric additional sites to explore that are unique to the manuscript’s original form—is an important step in an exciting direction. In this ever-more-digital and technocentric world, let’s find new ways to reach out and touch the past, to make it tangible, and in turn, allow it to touch us, and breathe new life into our academic, political, personal, and everyday worlds.
For more information about HM 144, visit its page on the Huntington Library’s online Digital Scriptorium, and see the Huntington's images on their official website here.