Expertis medicis videatur: Legal Medical Expertise in the Apostolic Chancery’s Assessment of Personal Injury Damages during the Avignon Period (1309–1378)
[en] The pontifical institution was one of the first, and certainly most influential, organizations to devote significant resources to the investigation led to assess personal injury. In this chapter, I examine the role of forensic medicine in the institution’s adjudication procedures between 1309 and 1378, while the papacy was resident in Avignon. A modern public policy typically foregrounds a personalized conception of disability in assessing personal injury and any associated damages, taking into account the interaction between an individual and his or her environment alongside doctors’ expertise and any valid insurance policies. It appears that this personalized vision of disability is very close to the model used by the Apostolic Chancery at the end of the medieval period. An analysis of the petitions received by the Chancery and the letters sent in return during the Avignon period demonstrates that the Curia recognized the condition of disabled individuals who, within the limits of the law, wished to adapt their duties, as clerics and as Christians, according to their physical limitations. In these documents, the physicians appeared as medical authorities, advisors, or decision makers, entrusted to justify, evaluate, or verify the personal injury damages report.
Disciplines :
History
Author, co-author :
Dubourg, Ninon ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences historiques > Histoire du Moyen Age tardif et de la Renaissance
Language :
English
Title :
Expertis medicis videatur: Legal Medical Expertise in the Apostolic Chancery’s Assessment of Personal Injury Damages during the Avignon Period (1309–1378)
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