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RESEARCH PRODUCT

El metge sota sospita: actuació mèdica en els testimonis pericials a ferits davant la cort del justícia criminal de la ciutat de València (1396)

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Taking its cue from a case tried at the court of the «Justícia Criminal» of the city of Valencia at the end of the fifteenth century, the article studies the influential rôle that the professionals of medicine played in the de-cisions arrived at in late medieval courts of justice. From the claim for medical expenses by the victim of an injury and the analysis of the attitudes of the various people involved in the trial -plaintiff, accused, and witness-es-, it works out what kind of medical as-sistance Valencians sought, how they valued the prestige and assessed the competence of the doctor, and what made them choose or reject one or another physician or surgeon, either as healer or as witness. The result shows that the individuals chosen as expert witness had enormous prestige and exerted great political, social and professional influ-ence in the city