Medical Conflicts in Early Modern London

Medical Conflicts in Early Modern London PDF Author: Margaret Pelling
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192575503
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
Physicians have had a major role in framing the middle-class values of modern western society, especially those relating to the professions. This book questions the bases of this hegemony, by looking first at the early modern physician's insecurities in terms of status and gender, and then at the wider world of medicine in London which the College of Physicians sought to suppress. The College's proceedings against irregular practitioners constitute a case-study in the regulation of an occupation critical for the well-being of contemporary Londoners. However, the College was, it is argued, an anomalous body, detached from most other forms of male authority in the urban context, and its claims lacked social recognition. It used stereotyping to construct an account designed for higher authority, but at the same time, its regulatory efforts were constantly undermined by the effects of patronage. The so-called irregular practitioners emerge as extremely diverse in country of origin, religious belief, and levels of formal education, yet the full analysis provided here also shows that most were literate, and that a significant number later became members of the College. Many were London artisans, barber-surgeons and apothecaries who can be seen as the 'excluded middle' between the two better-known extremes of the physician and the quack. In suppressing artisan practitioners, the College was also seeking to suppress contractual or 'citizen' medicine, an alternative system of structuring relations between the active patient and the practitioner which was fully integrated in contemporary urban custom and practice, but which has since disappeared. The College's selective account also inadvertently reveals the existence of female artisans who practised medicine outside the household routinely and for payment. Although distorted by the College's proximity to the Crown and to élite patrons, the Annals of the College give access to the rich variety of medical practice in early modern London and to the forms of resistance and self-presentation with which those outside the College justified, or denied, their identity as practitioners.

Medical Conflicts in Early Modern London

Medical Conflicts in Early Modern London PDF Author: Margaret Pelling
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192575503
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 427

Get Book Here

Book Description
Physicians have had a major role in framing the middle-class values of modern western society, especially those relating to the professions. This book questions the bases of this hegemony, by looking first at the early modern physician's insecurities in terms of status and gender, and then at the wider world of medicine in London which the College of Physicians sought to suppress. The College's proceedings against irregular practitioners constitute a case-study in the regulation of an occupation critical for the well-being of contemporary Londoners. However, the College was, it is argued, an anomalous body, detached from most other forms of male authority in the urban context, and its claims lacked social recognition. It used stereotyping to construct an account designed for higher authority, but at the same time, its regulatory efforts were constantly undermined by the effects of patronage. The so-called irregular practitioners emerge as extremely diverse in country of origin, religious belief, and levels of formal education, yet the full analysis provided here also shows that most were literate, and that a significant number later became members of the College. Many were London artisans, barber-surgeons and apothecaries who can be seen as the 'excluded middle' between the two better-known extremes of the physician and the quack. In suppressing artisan practitioners, the College was also seeking to suppress contractual or 'citizen' medicine, an alternative system of structuring relations between the active patient and the practitioner which was fully integrated in contemporary urban custom and practice, but which has since disappeared. The College's selective account also inadvertently reveals the existence of female artisans who practised medicine outside the household routinely and for payment. Although distorted by the College's proximity to the Crown and to élite patrons, the Annals of the College give access to the rich variety of medical practice in early modern London and to the forms of resistance and self-presentation with which those outside the College justified, or denied, their identity as practitioners.

Medical Conflicts in Early Modern London

Medical Conflicts in Early Modern London PDF Author: Margaret Pelling
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199257805
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
A discussion of the role of London's College of Physicians from the mid-16th to mid-17th centuries in suppressing 'irregular' or 'artisan' practitioners of medicine, in the contexts of gender and status.

Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London

Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London PDF Author: Lauren Kassell
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191514225
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Simon Forman (1552-1611) is one of London's most infamous astrologers. He stood apart from the medical elite because he was not formally educated and because he represented, and boldly asserted, medical ideas that were antithetical to those held by most learned physicians. He survived the plague, was consulted thousands of times a year for medical and other questions, distilled strong waters made from beer, herbs, and sometimes chemical ingredients, pursued the philosopher's stone in experiments and ancient texts, and when he was fortunate spoke with angels. He wrote compulsively, documenting his life and protesting his expertise in thousands of pages of notes and treatises. This highly readable book provides the first full account of Forman's papers, makes sense of his notorious reputation, and vividly recovers the world of medicine and magic in Elizabethan London.

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine PDF Author: Mark Jackson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199546495
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 691

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Book Description
In three sections, the Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine celebrates the richness and variety of medical history around the world. It explore medical developments and trends in writing history according to period, place, and theme.

Publishers, Censors and Collectors in the European Book Trade, 1650–1750

Publishers, Censors and Collectors in the European Book Trade, 1650–1750 PDF Author: Ann-Marie Hansen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004691944
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
This edited volume explores the development of the European book world between 1650 and 1750, concentrating on changes in publishing strategies, practices of censorship, the circulation of second-hand books and the building of libraries. Its essays discuss this critical, but much neglected period of print history through case studies from Spain, Italy, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Britain and the Netherlands. Ranging from the posthumous publication of Galileo to the regulation of the book auction market, this volume demonstrates that the century between 1650 and 1750 was a transformative period for the history of the printed book.

English almanacs, astrology and popular medicine, 1550–1700

English almanacs, astrology and popular medicine, 1550–1700 PDF Author: Louise Hill-Curth
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526129868
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Early modern almanacs have received relatively little academic attention over the years, despite being the first true form of British mass media. While their major purpose was to provide annual information about the movements of the stars and the corresponding effects on Earth, most contained a range of other material, including advice on preventative and remedial medicine for humans and animals. Based on the most extensive research to date into the relationship between the popular press, early modern medical beliefs and practices, this study argues that these cheap, annual booklets played a major role in shaping contemporary medical beliefs and practices in early modern England. Beginning with an overview of printed vernacular medical literature, the book examines in depth the genre of almanacs, their authors, target and actual audiences. It discusses the various types of medical information and advice in almanacs, preventative and remedial medicine for humans, as well as ‘non-commercial’ and ‘commercial’ medicines promoted in almanacs, and the under-explored topic of animal health care.

Contagion and the Shakespearean Stage

Contagion and the Shakespearean Stage PDF Author: Darryl Chalk
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030144283
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
This collection of essays considers what constituted contagion in the minds of early moderns in the absence of modern germ theory. In a wide range of essays focused on early modern drama and the culture of theater, contributors explore how ideas of contagion not only inform representations of the senses (such as smell and touch) and emotions (such as disgust, pity, and shame) but also shape how people understood belief, narrative, and political agency. Epidemic thinking was not limited to medical inquiry or the narrow study of a particular disease. Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker and other early modern writers understood that someone might be infected or transformed by the presence of others, through various kinds of exchange, or if exposed to certain ideas, practices, or environmental conditions. The discourse and concept of contagion provides a lens for understanding early modern theatrical performance, dramatic plots, and theater-going itself.

Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment PDF Author: R.J.W. Evans
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351946668
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
'Curiosity' and 'wonder' are topics of increasing interest and importance to Renaissance and Enlightenment historians. Conspicuous in a host of disciplines from history of science and technology to history of art, literature, and society, both have assumed a prominent place in studies of the Early Modern period. This volume brings together an international group of scholars to investigate the various manifestations of, and relationships between, 'curiosity' and 'wonder' from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Focused case studies on texts, objects and individuals explore the multifaceted natures of these themes, highlighting the intense fascination and continuing scrutiny to which each has been subjected over three centuries. From instances of curiosity in New World exploration to the natural wonders of 18th-century Italy, Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment locates its subjects in a broad geographical and disciplinary terrain. Taken together, the essays presented here construct a detailed picture of two complex themes, demonstrating the extent to which both have been transformed and reconstituted, often with dramatic results.

Medical Authority and Englishwomen's Herbal Texts, 1550–1650

Medical Authority and Englishwomen's Herbal Texts, 1550–1650 PDF Author: Rebecca Laroche
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351918796
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
The first study to analyze print vernacular folio herbals from the standpoint of gender and to present original findings to do with early modern women's ownership of these herbals, Medical Authority and Englishwomen's Herbal Texts also looks at reasons and contexts behind early modern female writers claiming herbal practice. Author Rebecca Laroche first establishes cultural backdrops in the gendering of medical authority that takes place in the herbals and the regular ownership of these herbals by women. She then examines women's engagements with herbal texts in life writings and poetry and asks how these moments represent and engage medical authority. In ultimately demonstrating how female writers variously take on women's herbal medical practices, Laroche reveals the broad range of literary potentials within the historical category of women's medicine.

Occult Knowledge, Science, and Gender on the Shakespearean Stage

Occult Knowledge, Science, and Gender on the Shakespearean Stage PDF Author: Mary Floyd-Wilson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107036321
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Belief in spirits, demons and the occult was commonplace in the early modern period, as was the view that these forces could be used to manipulate nature and produce new knowledge. In this groundbreaking study, Mary Floyd-Wilson explores these beliefs in relation to women and scientific knowledge, arguing that the early modern English understood their emotions and behavior to be influenced by hidden sympathies and antipathies in the natural world. Focusing on Twelfth Night, Arden of Faversham, A Warning for Fair Women, All's Well That Ends Well, The Changeling and The Duchess of Malfi, she demonstrates how these plays stage questions about whether women have privileged access to nature's secrets and whether their bodies possess hidden occult qualities. Discussing the relationship between scientific discourse and the occult, she goes on to argue that as experiential evidence gained scientific ground, women's presumed intimacy with nature's secrets was either diminished or demonized.