Renaissance Medicine: A Short History of European Medicine in the Sixteenth Century

419 Pages·2022·120.899 MB·English

by  Vivian Nutton

‘Professor Vivian Nutton’s Renaissance Medicine is an astonishing achievement.
Deeply and widely read in primary sources as well as in the wealth of secondary
literature that has been generated in the field of medical history over the years, Nutton
surveys the entire world of sixteenth-century European medicine. His book is also a
global history, tracking the impact of new drugs and diseases on European medicine
and populations, stemming from both East and West – the Indies and the Americas –
in the late renaissance.’
—Jonathan Sawday, Saint Louis University, USA
‘Vivian Nutton has written a magisterial survey of the lively world of Renaissance
medicine. Drawing on sources from all over Europe (and with a particular focus
on the large German-speaking territories), he looks at the major debates and
developments – among them the crucial role of Galenism as well as the new
horizons and challenges, from the recovery of ancient medical theories and the rise
of neoplatonic ideas to the encounter with new diseases and exotic drugs and the
laborious work at the dissection table. A must-read for anyone interested in this
formative period in the history of Western medicine.’
—Michael Stolberg, University of Würzburg, Germany

Renaissance Medicine
This volume offers a comprehensive historical survey of medicine in sixteenth-
century Europe and examines both medical theories and practices within
their intellectual and social context.
Nutton investigates the changes brought about in medicine by the opening-up
of the European world to new drugs and new diseases, such as syphilis and
the Sweat, and by the development of printing and more efficient means of
communication. Chapters examine how civic institutions such as Health
Boards, hospitals, town doctors and healers became more significant in the fight
against epidemic disease, and special attention is given to the role of women
and domestic medicine. The final section, on beliefs, explores the revised
Galenism of academic medicine, including a new emphasis on anatomy and
its most vocal antagonists, Paracelsians. The volume concludes by considering
the effect of religious changes on medicine, including the marginalisation, and
often expulsion, of non-Christian practitioners.
Based on a wide reading of primary sources from literature and art across
Europe, Renaissance Medicine is an invaluable resource for students and
scholars of the history of medicine and disease in the sixteenth century.
Vivian Nutton FBA is emeritus professor of the History of Medicine at UCL.
He has written widely on pre-modern medicine. His many books include
Galen, a Thinking Doctor in Imperial Rome, Routledge, 2020. He is at
present revising his Ancient Medicine (2nd edition, Routledge, 2013).

Renaissance Medicine
A Short History of European Medicine
in the Sixteenth Century
Vivian Nutton
Cover image: Triumph of Jacobus Castricus, woodcut by Hans
Holbein the Younger, circa 1530 © INTERFOTO/Alamy Stock Photo
First published 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 Vivian Nutton
The right of Vivian Nutton to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Nutton, Vivian, author.
Title: Renaissance medicine : a short history of European medicine
in the sixteenth century / Vivian Nutton.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021048118 (print) | LCCN 2021048119 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Medicine—History—16th century. | Renaissance.
Classification: LCC R128.6 .N88 2022 (print) | LCC R128.6 (ebook)
DDC 610.94—dc23/eng/20211124
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021048118
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021048119
ISBN: 978-1-032-12124-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-12123-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-22318-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003223184
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of figures ix
List of maps xi
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction 1
Contexts 9
1 New Lands, New Drugs and New Diseases 11
2 Protecting the Health of the City 40
3 Medical Communication: Print and the Post 68
4 The Rediscovery of Ancient Medicine 94
People 121
5 The Kaleidoscope of Healing I: Physicians 123
6 The Kaleidoscope of Healing II: Surgeons,
Apothecaries and Outsiders 151
7 On the Margins of Medical History: Women
and Patients 180
Beliefs 211
8 Learned Medicine 213
9 Anatomy – the Touchstone of Modernity 245
10 Paracelsus and Paracelsianism 278
viii Contents
11 Religion and Medicine 303
12 Conclusion 324
Chronological table 334
Bibliography 336
Index 391
Figures
Unless otherwise stated, all images are taken from Wellcome C ollections,
under the rubric of CC-BY=40 or Public Domain Mark.
1.1 Female genital mutilation in Ethiopia. 12
1.2 The poppy. 17
1.3 Girolamo Fracastoro shows the shepherd Syphilus and the
hunter Ilceus a statue of Venus to warn them against the
danger of infection with the pox. 26
1.4 Thomas Jordanus (1540–86), chief doctor of Moravia. 31
2.1 Pieter van Foreest (1522–97), the Dutch Hippocrates,
served as a town physician at Pithiviers in France and
from 1557 to 1596 in Delft. 44
2.2 The Old Lazaretto in the Venetian lagoon, 1572. 56
2.3 Saint Elizabeth of Hungary bringing food for the inmates
of a hospital. 59
3.1 Conrad Gessner (1516–65), Icones animalium. 73
3.2 Giovanni Manardi (1461–1536), Epistulae
medicinales. 80
3.3 Johann Crato von Crafftheim (1519–85), imperial physician. 87
4.1 Galen in a heading from the first Greek printing of Galen. 104
4.2 The title page of Thomas Linacre’s translation of Galen’s
big Method of Healing. 110
4.3 Editions and translations of Galen and Hippocrates in the
sixteenth century. 111
4.4 The title page of Girolamo Mercuriale’s edition
of Hippocrates. 115
5.1 Janus Cornarius (1500–58), translator and professor
of medicine at Marburg and Jena. 130
5.2 Johannes Lange (1485–1565), professor of medicine
at Heidelberg and doctor to the Elector Palatine. 144
6.1 Jacques Guillemeau (1550–1613), Les Oeuvres de
Chirurgie. 156