Margareta- Roman army surgeon?

[Memmia]

Salvete,

I have seen a few brief references on (non historical) medical sites which state that Galen mentions- and praises a female Roman army surgeon called Margareta.
I am aware that there were many female Roman and Greek doctors, but am amazed that one would be an army surgeon

Does anyone have any links/ info about her?

Thank you in advance

Jo

[richsc]

Fascinating. A quick search finds mention but no details, so I suppose most info would be supposition. I am 1/3 way through a book on Galen, so hopefully will find something about her. Certainly adds to our female member's impressions if we can find out more.

[Memmia]

Hi there,

I too am busy trawling through Galen's works (a looong job!)
I've moved on from cosmetics and perfumes and now demonstrate medicine- mostly apothecary, but have an ever growing collection of surgical instruments and would like to demonstrate them with authenticity as they proved to be a great attraction at one of our open days
. I do hope Margareta really existed and wasn't a later 'addition' to Galen's work.
I'll let you know if I find anything too.

Thanks

Jo

[Nathan Ross]

It does sound fascinating, but the source seems a bit shadowy...

The earliest mention of this person I can find online is from the 1933 Annals of Medical History, with no reference given... Quite possibly all the subsequent mentions are echoes of that one.

'Margareta' doesn't seem a very Roman or Greek name either. There are a few Margaritas and Margarises, but they seem to be Christian-era.

Could it be that the name is a mistranslation of the original Greek, and that's why it doesn't turn up elsewhere? You'd think that such a historical prodigy would have been mentioned all over the place!

* A very scholarly essay on the subject of female doctors here - no mention of Margareta though... : Galen and the Girls

[richsc]

Dear Richard,
Your group sounds interesting and fun. I don't think that reference to Galen is accurate; I'm sure I'd know if Galen mentioned a female surgeon. There is a good chapter on women medical professionals in Rebecca Flemming's book Medicine and the Making of Roman Women; this book is unfortunately very expensive, but your library might have it. There were female doctors; I don't remember any reference to female army surgeons but I could be wrong. Best wishes, --SPM

Susan Mattern
Professor, Department of History
Le Conte Hall
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-1602
Cell: (706) 248-8897

________________________________________
From: richard campbell <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2014 10:09 AM
To: Susan Mattern
Subject: Galen and mention of Margareta the Army surgeon

Greetings Dr. Mattern,

I am in a reenactment group that emphasizes teaching the roles of women and men in the classical world. We strive for accuracy and try to have references for anything we discuss. Mention of people below the elite of Rome is pretty rare and for women in particular. However, someone just mentioned that Galen speaks of a woman who was a Roman army surgeon. This is news to most of us in the reenactment community (US and Europe) and worth building upon when we speak to high school groups and the public. Certainly our women members would eagerly build an impression and lectures based on this.

So as I have just started your book on Galen, I thought to ask you as a Galen scholar if you knew anything about this woman, and if the translation of 'surgeon' was correct as opposed to some other meaning. If in addition you can point us to books or papers addressing women in medical roles, we (speaking for reenactors here and abroad) would very much appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,

Richard Campbell
Alexandria, Virginia
Member of Legio XX

REM AD TRIARIOS REDISSE

[Memmia]

Salvete,

Thank you both!

It is highly possible that the 'source' for Margareta is indeed a more modern interpretation.
Such as this from 1990

The Development of Gynæcological Surgery and Instruments

Which is quoted from an earlier source - K. Campbell Hurd- Mead 'The History of Women in Medicine' 1938

At present scholars including Dr Caroline Pettit at Warwick University are translating Galen's works- I will contact them and see if they have any information

A Sense of Humour


Again, thank you for your help

Jo

[Memmia]

Searching through some online papers and references to 'Margareta' it seems that Dr Kate Campbell Mead Hurd seems to be the prime source of this information.

She also seems to have been an feminist who accused many of the ancient medical writers of a form of plagiarism- referring to the works of Hippocrates- she claims that some of his work

'bears the stamp of women's writings and they were copied under his signature for centuries......

and

'Moshion copied Cleopatra's gynaecology in Greek gave her credit for it but it became over time a part of his own book and called by his name......

Dr Kate Campbell Hurd Mead and the Medical Woman's struggle for history

.
Admittedly, the medical arts have been open to potential misogynistic accusations- even as recently as the Watson- Crick- Franklin affair regarding DNA structure....

There is also still controversy regarding Trotula of Salerno- was' she' really a 'he'?

Trotula of Salerno


So was Margareta a real army surgeon or just a feminist dream?

Answers on a postcard please.... :wink:

I will wait and see if I get a reply from my email and let you know if there is a reliable primary source

[Nathan Ross]

Dr Kate Campbell Mead Hurd seems to be the prime source of this information.

Yes, I wondered about that. But it seems that the 1933 P.B. Hoeber book I mentioned above predates Campbell Mead Hurd by a few years. Perhaps she got it from there? It does seem unlikely that she would simply have invented the detail! Where Hoeber got it from is another question, but he lacks the motive...

[Memmia]

Hi Nathan,

It would be interesting to see if Dr Campbell Hurd Mead had written this an earlier publication- she was writing about Trotula in 1930.
PB Hoeber may have even got his source from an earlier work of hers.. but of course that's complete speculation until it can be found.

Amendment: Just researched this and PB Hoeber is actually the name of publisher not the author- does it state who contributed the article?

Thanks

Jo


.

[Renatus]

This is Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead's reference to Margareta in her A History of Women in Medicine from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century (1938). Unfortunately, she does not give a reference.

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?q1=Ma...1up;seq=94

[Nathan Ross]

does it state who contributed the article?.

No idea, I'm afraid! The little snippet on Google books is all I know, and it doesn't seem to give any more information...

[Renatus]

A search on COPAC has revealed that it comes from a six-part series of articles entitled 'An introduction to the history of women in medicine' by (guess who) Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead.

I suppose what we have to do now is see if Galen mentions Margareta in any context and (if so) work out from that how she may have concluded that Margareta was an army surgeon.

[Memmia]

Interesting article about women medicae and how they were not necessarily all confined to obstetrics here. Well referenced (one reference to Dr Campbell Hurd Mead in the bibliography but as part of a wider selection of sources).
No mention of a Margareta though

Women physicians in Greece, Rome, and the Byzantine Empire

Thanks

Jo