We
have a long, fascinating past that continues to thrive
in this modern day. If you sit down to read an ancient
illuminating manuscript, you can almost imagine being
there, in a normal cell in an ordinary convent, sitting
alongside a Friar while he records his scientific
findings.
Following the long period of middle-age obscurantism,
the only link we had to the great wisdom and knowledge
of past civilisations came from Monastic Orders.
They committed themselves to researching, preserving
and passing down the mainstays of our culture, an
extremely important part of which is taken up by botany,
pharmacy and medicine.
Thanks
to all the work these modest and obscure Monks carried
out, we can continue to learn more in this field.
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These Monks were the guardians of our culture as well
as the central and co-ordinating pole of all art, especially
the art of medicine.
Protected by the shadows and safe walls of ancient monasteries,
the Monks used their herb infusions to offer not only
spiritual, but often miraculous comfort to the sick.
Their knowledge, experience and almost divine contact
with Nature ensured that they were able to recognise
and use medicinal plants in a masterful and competent
way.
Ancient Schools of Medicine, such as the one in Salerno
(1100) and Schools of Surgery, such as the one in Preci
(1300), still take full advantage of knowledge passed
on by Monks.
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Monks
began to use other galenic methods rather than infusion
so that curative products could be preserved longer
and easily transported. There was no chemistry as such
at the time (this science was discovered many centuries
later), but they began to experiment with distillation
(essences, liqueurs, concentrates), using more reliable
components and excipients such as alcohol (alkoholates,
elixirs, extracts, liqueurs) and to blend various ingredients,
thereby creating extremely therapeutic mixtures...
It was their conservatism that ensured that active molecule
chemistry remained outside the convent walls, while
natural excipients were developed and that the figure
of a silent Friar combing the forests for officinal
plants immersed in the peace of the Monastery can still
be seen today without appearing old-fashioned.
It was their way of looking on life as “continuum”
that ensured we still have the chance to use products
that are as genuine and tasty as hundreds of years ago.
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