[Judging reliably. Medical authority and the ability to discriminate between the clean and the unclean].

Abstract

The article aims to explore the physicians' role at the Nuremberg "Sondersiechenalmosen" in the 15th and 16th centuries. Special attention is given to the question as to how the city's physicians, who claimed expert status superior to other healers and who had special authority to advise the authorities in keeping the city clean and healthy, declared and explained their problems in connection with the "examen leprosorum" on the occasion of the "Sondersiechenschau". From 1394 the city had opened its gates for three days in Holy Week leading up to Easter to offer clerical assistance, food and shelter to foreign lepers. This meant that people were cared for who would not usually have been admitted because they were foreigners as well as being leprous. The physicians' task within that charity was to discriminate between the leprous and foreign beggars, a task which caused serious problems when, in the 16th century, at times two thousand and more foreigners entered the imperial city during Holy Week. When, in 1571, the Nuremberg physician Kammermeister proposed to establish a "Collegium Medicum" in the city of Nuremberg, he described the procedure extensively. The authorities ignored the initial claim to establish a "Collegium Medicum" but requested each academically trained physician of the city to give a personal statement on the physicians' ability to seriously judge the foreigners who claimed to be leprous. Based primarily on these statements, the article hopes to shed some light on the Nuremberg "Sondersiechenalmosen", on the "examen leprosorum", and on the relation between medical judgement and medical authority in general.