La práctica de la medicina en una frontera. El establecimiento de un sistema asistencial en Alcoi y Cocentaina (Reino de Valencia) durante los siglos XIII y XIV

During the second half of the thirteenth and early fourteenth century, an important migration process took place in the recently established Kingdom of Valencia. There was great social mobility across the rural villages, as observed in the cases of Alcoi and Cocentaina, on the Southern border of the kingdom. Such mobility gave rise to a particular model of medical care also characterized by the frequent roaming of its practitioners who, nevertheless, coexisted with a group of healers living in these small communities. The difficulties experienced by these doctors (either physicians or surgeons) and barbers while carrying out their professional activities and collecting their fees were derived from this mobility and the particularities of hectic life on the frontier. However, medical practitioners played an important role as advisors in the court.