This scholarly volume delves into the spread of leprosy and the architecture of leper hospitals across Britain, using archival notices and charters to illuminate a little-known chapter of medical and social history. It traces how a once-common disease touched remote communities, from Edinburgh’s outskirts to the western Highlands, and how societies organized care and containment.

Leprosy in the medieval world is explored through focused case studies and documentary evidence. The author reviews the rise and decline of leper hospitals, the roles of knights and monasteries, and the geographic reach of these institutions across Scotland and England. Readers will see how legal and political contexts shaped responses to illness, and how records reveal the lived experience of sufferers and their communities.

Discover concrete examples of leper hospitals in Scotland, such as Aldcambus and Rathven, and learn how these sites were documented in charters and annexed records.
Understand the broader historical backdrop, including royal and ecclesiastical actions, laws, and the spread of disease across Europe.
See how historians piece together incomplete records to argue about the presence and treatment of leprosy in the Middle Ages.
Explore how this topic connects to wider maps of medieval health care, charity, and social policy.

Ideal for readers of medical history, Scottish history, and archival scholarship who want a grounded, documentary look at how societies faced illness in the past.

About the Author

John Stuart is principal lecturer in history at Kingston University, London. Formerly lecturer in British Imperial and Commonwealth History at Kings College, London, he is also the author of several articles and book chapters on the history of British Protestant missions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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