An Eye for Treatment: Medical Recipes for Plague, Melancholy, Cataracts, and Other Ailments in Early Modern Transylvania

Join us for a journey into the weird, wise, and sometimes wonderful world of historical medicine. A conversation with historian Angela Gazda about healing, household knowledge, and the and the legacy of women’s medical activities in early modern Transylvania in the 16th–18th centuries, facilitated by historian Sarah Covington. 

From teething pain and melancholy to plague prevention and cataract surgery, this talk explores centuries-old recipes once used in Transylvanian households, especially those collected by noblewomen in the 16th–18th centuries. These handwritten collections go far beyond treating illness. They include remedies for beauty, diet, and everyday well-being, some surprisingly practical, others oddly mysterious, and many still relevant in unexpected ways today.

Angela Gazda is a PhD candidate in history at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research interests include the history of early modern east central Europe, the history of books and readers, and the history of medicine from antiquity through the present. Her…