A collection of 11 essays published between 1981 and 1996 reflecting the shift of emphasis by historians of medicine from the triumph of the existing medical industry to the place of health in society as a whole and in various subpopulations. Among the topics are Galen in the Renaissance, William Harvey and the Way of the Anatomists, Religious beliefs and medicine in early modern England, puritan perceptions of illness in 17th-century England, medical ethics during the period, caring for the sick poor in St. Bartholomew Exchange 1580-1676, the popularization of medicine, and epistemology and learned medicine. The essays are reproduced from their original publication in a variety of type styles. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The opening studies in this volume, on the revival of Galenic medicine in Continental Europe, provide the context for its focus - England in the 17th century. The author covers the discovery of the circulation of the blood, but it is the underlying components of health and medicine that form the subjects of this book. It deals, notably, with the strong link then perceived between health and the environment, perhaps even more present in people’s minds than today, with the relationship between medicine and religion, and with medical ethics. Further studies discuss the provision made for the sick poor, the popularisation of medicine, and the epistemological basis of learned or university based medicine. A theme throughout is the range of treatments available in the ’medical marketplace’ of the 17th century, from wise women to learned physicians.

Misery to Mirth aims to change our thinking about health in early modern England. Drawing on sources such as diaries and medical texts, it shows that recovery did exist as a concept, and that it was a widely-reported event. The study examines how patients, and their loved ones, dealt with overcoming a seemingly fatal illness.--

Conserving health in early modern culture explores the impact of ideas about healthy living in early modern England and Italy. The attention of medical historians has largely been focussed on the study of illness and medical treatment, yet prevention was one of the cornerstones of early modern medicine. According to Galenic-Hippocratic thought, the preservation of health depended on the careful management of the so-called six ?Non-Naturals?: the air one breathed; food and drink; excretions; sleep; movement and rest; and emotions. Drawing on visual, material and textual sources, the contributors show the pervasiveness of the preventive paradigm in early modern culture and society. In particular it becomes apparent that concern for the non-naturals informed lay people?s daily lives and routines as well as stimulating innovation in material culture and painting, and influencing discourses in fields as diverse as geology, natural philosophy and religion. At the same time the volume challenges the common assumption that health advice was a uniform and stable body of knowledge, showing instead that models of healthy living were tailored to different genders, age-groups and categories of patients; they also varied over time and depended on the geographical context. In particular, significant differences emerge between what was regarded as beneficial or harmful to health in England and Italy. As well as showing the value of a comparative perspective of study, this interdisciplinary volume will appeal to a wide readership, interested not just in health practices, but in print culture, histories of women, infancy, the environment and of art and material culture.

Women have engaged in healing from the beginning of history, often within the context of the home. This book studies the role, contributions and challenges faced by women healers in France, Spain, Italy and England, including medical practice among women in the Jewish and Muslim communities, from the later Middle Ages to approximately 1800.

A concise and accessible introduction to health and healing in Europe from 1500 to 1800.

Across early modern Europe, men and women from all ranks gathered medical, culinary, and food preservation recipes from family and friends, experts and practitioners, and a wide array of printed materials. Recipes were tested, assessed, and modified by teams of householders, including masters and servants, husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, and fathers and sons. This much-sought know-how was written into notebooks of various shapes and sizes forming “treasuries for health,” each personalized to suit the whims and needs of individual communities. In Recipes and Everyday Knowledge, Elaine Leong situates recipe knowledge and practices among larger questions of gender and cultural history, the history of the printed word, and the history of science, medicine, and technology. The production of recipes and recipe books, she argues, were at the heart of quotidian investigations of the natural world or “household science”. She shows how English homes acted as vibrant spaces for knowledge making and transmission, and explores how recipe trials allowed householders to gain deeper understandings of sickness and health, of the human body, and of natural and human-built processes. By recovering this story, Leong extends the parameters of natural inquiry and productively widens the cast of historical characters participating in and contributing to early modern science.