Abstract

During the late Middle Ages in southern France around Montpellier, astrological, magical, and other folk cures were widely used in medicine, despite the theological problems they raised. Medieval Christian scholars such as Albertus Magnus, Arnald of Villanova, and Peter of Abano advocated their use. ;Four Jewish authorities of the period, Moses Maimonides , Moses Nahmanides , Solomon ibn Adret , and Nissim Gerondi , address the permissibility of these cures under halakha in their responsa, biblical commentaries, and philosophical works, based on Talmudic passages. Maimonides' view of permitted cures is limited by a concern over superstition and idolatry, and a preference for "rational" cures. Nahmanides admits the power of an "irrational" science such as astrology, but argues that Jews should rely only on God. Ibn Adret looks to the purpose rather than a "rational explanation" of a curative act . Nissim emphasizes intent in determining permissible cures, but in explaining the mechanism of "occult" cures draws on notions common to non-Jewish medieval writers and the Greek sources common to the Arab, Christian and Jewish traditions. The three later authorities' criticism of Maimonides' allegedly narrow views of permissible cures may be based on an erroneous understanding of these views, influenced by a transcriptional error in a translation of his Guide of the Perplexed. ;The Jewish and Christian authorities' rationale behind folk cures exhibit a common struggle to discover the laws of nature, and to connect reasoning with observation and experience