Manuscript detail from Sloane 7, a medical miscellany showing urine flasks with different layers of colour and particles, ca. 1400–25. The left is labelled “kyanos” (blue) in Greek and the right is labelled “inopos” (wine-coloured).
Featured on PDR in the essay Troubled Waters: Reading Urine in Medieval Medicine
From cabbage green to coarse meal, medieval manuscripts exhibit a spectrum of colours and consistencies when describing urine. Katherine Harvey examines the complex practices of uroscopy: how physicians could divine sexual history, disease, and impending death by studying the body's liquid excretions.
Also appearing in the essay…
Urine Flasks
Date
ca. 1400–25
From
BL Sloane 7
- Exceptional quality, from $32 including delivery
- Archival inks on high grade art paper
- Framed option with solid wood and ready to hang