Psalm Prescriptions: healthcare advice in thirteenth-century liégeois psalters

Psalters from thirteenth-century female religious communities in the Diocese of Liège include a striking number of prayers, prescriptions, health rules, and visual imagery related to illness and remedy. Examining these manuscript materials, this paper argues that religious women in Liège were responsible for the care of bodies and souls in their communities, body and soul being inextricably connected through an anthropology that regarded sin as the source of disease and penitential practice as its anecdote. While scholars have previously had access to these psalters, and have noted the penchant for penitential exercise among this group of women, none have connected the provision of healthcare. By integrating these psalter materials with archival and narrative evidence demonstrating the healthcare work performed by liégeoise beguines and Cistercians in local hospitals, leprosaria, and at sickbeds in private homes, I reveal an important role played by women in premodern public health. Beguine and Cistercian women in thirteenth-century Liège were responsible for the care of sick and dying bodies, and their prayers were regarded as particularly efficacious for freeing the soul from illness wrought by sin. Their psalters were a tool aiding this process of recovery.