Trivia: Chaucer's "Doctour of Phisik"

A lot of people have read Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales while taking an English Lit course.

But do you remember how Chaucer, who lived c.1340–1400, described the doctor who was traveling with the pilgrims? What was his training, and what were his techniques? (Below is the section on the doctor, in which I've updated some of the more obscure language, and I've put in breaks to make it easier on online eyes.)

The Physician

With us there was a doctor of medicine;
In all this world was there none like him,
To speak of medicine and of surgery,
For he was instructed in astronomy.

He took care of his patient very many times
During astronomically suitable times using natural science.
He knew well how to calculate the planetary position
Of his astronomical images for his patient.
He knew the cause of every malady,
Were it of cold, or hot, or moist, or dry elements,
And where engendered, and by which bodily fluid.
He was a truly perfect practitioner:
The cause known, and the source of the patient's harm,
At once he gave the sick man his remedy.
He had his apothecaries all ready
To send him drugs and electuaries,
For each of them made the other to profit
Their friendship was not recent.

Well knew he the old Esculapius,
And Dioscorides, and also Rufus;
Old Hippocrates, Haly, and Galen;
Serapion, Rhazes, and Avicenna;
Averroes, John the Damascan, and Constantine;
Bernard, and Gaddesden, and Gilbertus.

He was moderate in his diet,
For it was not in excess,
But greatly nourishing, and digestible.
His study was but little on the Bible.
He was clad all in red and blue,
Lined with taffeta, and with silk.
And yet he was moderate in spending;
He kept what he earned during the plague.
For gold in medicine is a restorative for the heart;
Therefore he especially loved gold.

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