MEDICINE FROM ANTIQUITY TO 1500 CE
CHST 777 FALL 2013
Wednesdays 18:30-21:30
INSTRUCTOR:
INSTRUCTOR EMAIL:
OFFICE HOURS:
COURSE PREREQUISITES:
The Chang School Office Hours:
Jaipreet Virdi
jvirdi@ryerson.ca
by appointment only
None.
Monday-Thursday: 8:00am-7:00pm
Friday: 8:00am-4:30pm
Saturday: 8:15am-1:15am (closed July and August)
Course Description
The dread of disease, physical pain, and mental suffering has always loomed large in human experience.
How did people in the past react to sickness? What kinds of diseases affected people’s lives, and what
approaches were taken to hold diseases at bay? This course covers diseases and medical practice from
antiquity to AD 1500. It is set in the context of the Near East, Greek and Roman society, the Islamic world,
and Medieval Europe. An underlying theme is the complex interplay between disease, patient, and
physician.
Throughout the course, we will analyze and evaluate the social, intellectual, and cultural processes of the
medical heritage, covering a variety of themes, including:
-The epistemology of diseases: what theoretical models were constructed to explain the onset of
disease and illness, and how were they treated?
-Learned knowledge and intellectual exchange: how did texts, expertise, institutions, and
authority define and construct the practice of medicine?
-The cultural history of the body: in what ways did depictions of gendered bodies shape an
understanding of sex, childbirth, and the role of the physician?
-The social history of illness: how was disease experienced and how did illness define the
relationship between patient and practitioner?
Course Objectives & Learning Outcomes
This course is designed for you to gain knowledge of major developments in medical theory and practice.
You will learn how to advance your skills in critical thinking and reading, becoming familiar with
scholarship on the history of medicine. You will also learn how to read and analyze various primary
source materials within their cultural contexts and think critically about their basic assumptions and
conceptual frameworks.
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Organization
The course is arranged into 13 three-hour classes. Each class will be divided as follows:
6:30-8:15: Lecture
8:15-8:30: Break
8:30-9:30: Discussion
Attendance is absolutely essential; there will be an attendance sheet for you to sign. The course material
is not entirely covered in the readings and will often go beyond them. In addition, I use a lot of slides and
examples in lectures to illustrate the material in order to provide you with a deeper understanding of the
week`s topic. If you have any obligations that prevent you from regular class attendance, then this course
is not for you. In preparation for each class, you are expected to complete the assigned readings and take
notes. If you miss any class(es), it is YOUR responsibility to get an update or notes from a fellow
classmate, as well as any class announcements. Please do not email me asking for lecture notes for a class
you missed. To enhance your learning experience, I will post handouts of the lecture slides on Blackboard
every Sunday; these handouts will help you stay organized with your notes and the lecture material. I will
NOT be posting all lecture slides, as some of them are quite image-heavy.
Readings
Every class will require a moderate amount of reading; the readings are intended to provide you material
for thought and discussion, and to be used as a guide for the lectures. All readings will be posted on
Blackboard. It is your responsibility to access the readings from Blackboard and online.
Twitter
This course has a twitter account (@Hist_Medicine, #CHST777) which is used to continue conversations
about the week’s topic beyond the classroom. I strongly encourage students to open up a twitter account.
This will be a platform for me to share images and narratives that might not have been covered in class,
or to illuminate and clarify complicated theories, or even answer quick questions regarding the readings
or materials for the exam. If you do not have a twitter account, or wish to open one, that’s okay—you are
still able to follow the discussion, though not participate. Please note that twitter participation is NOT
mandatory, but I will add it as part of your participation grade if you are avidly contributing to the
discussion.
Classroom Etiquette
In order to foster an environment of mutual respect, and to minimize distractions, I ask everyone to
switch-off and put away during class all cell-phones, pagers, electronic organizers, and other
communication devices. Laptops are welcome, but only for note-taking.
Evaluation
Active Participation (20%)
Attendance to the class is mandatory. You are expected to demonstrate an ability to critique the
information presented in class as well as in the readings by asking questions, answering questions, or
commenting in an appropriate and informed way, during the discussion sessions. You mark will be
assessed on the quality of your contributions: coming to class having done the readings, thought about
the seminar questions listed in the schedule, and prepared with your own questions or responses to the
readings. Simply signing the attendance sheet will only guarantee you partial marks.
Essay Assignment I: Source Analysis (10%) Wednesday October 9
This assignment is meant to help you formulate your essay and is designed to get you thinking about your
essay early on and receive constructive feedback before you begin writing. Choose ONE or TWO primary
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sources (illustration, instrument, tool, etc) from one of the following websites below. Your assignment is
to analyze the historical significance of your selected source.
Guidelines: 1 page analysis—list source, any information obtained about source from website, a possible
thesis statement and 2-3 points for argument and a minimum of 2 secondary sources. You are free to
select any source as long as it fits the course timeframe (i.e. before 17th century). Please consult me if
there is some other source you are interested in.
The objective of this assignment is for you to interpret a primary source that will form the foundation of
your final essay assignment. This assignment should be an analysis, not a summary of the source you
selected—evaluate the significance of the source, inquire what questions are raised, and think about how
the source sheds light on particular aspects of medical history.
Antique Medical Surgical and Dental Instruments
Wellcome Images Collection
MacKinney Collection of Medieval Medical Illustrations
Ancient Roman Surgical Instruments
http://phisick.com
http://wellcomeimages.org/
www.lib.unc.edu/dc/mackinney
http://exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu/romansurgical
Midterm (10%) Wednesday October 23
A short midterm to assess your progress in the course. Format: 90minutes, short answers and one essaystyle question.
Essay Assignment II (35%) Wednesday December 4
Your final essay should be 2000 words + bibliography and contain a minimum of 5 sources. It should
expand from your first essay assignment. You should include a clear introduction and thesis, a main body
of argument & evidence, and a conclusion. Use footnotes as citations, and when quoting directly from
other works and/or paraphrasing material, you MUST reference it. See the “Academic Integrity” and
“Plagiarism” sections below. You may also post your assignment on the Course Blog, if you wish—further
details will be discussed in class.
Final Exam (25%) Wednesday December 11
The material you will be tested on is cumulative, since the beginning of the term, as covered in lectures,
readings, and discussion periods. Format will include: image identification, short answer questions, one
or two lengthy essay-style question. We will do a review on Tuesday November 26.
PLEASE NOTE: in order to pass this course, you must achieve a minimum of 30% in the midterm and
complete all the assignments.
Missed Term Work or Examinations
You are expected to complete all assignments and exams within the time frames and by the dates
indicated in this outline. Extensions for the essay or make-ups for the midterm or final will only be
permitted for a medical or a personal emergency or due to religious observance (request must be
received within the first two weeks of the course). I must be notified by email prior to the due date or
test/exam, or as soon as possible after the date, and the appropriate documentation must be submitted.
Late assignments will be penalized at 5% of the total grade per day and no assignment will be
accepted more than a week after the deadline. For absence on medical or religious observance
grounds, official forms may be downloaded from the Ryerson website at
www.ryerson.ca/undergraduate/currentstudents/forms or picked up from The Chang School at Heaslip
House, 297 Victoria St., Main Floor.
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Academic Integrity
Ryerson University as a community of scholarship, teaching, and learning, takes academic integrity very
seriously. Honesty and integrity are at the core of any educational endeavour. It is our responsibility as
individuals, as faculty and students working together in this course, and as members of the Ryerson
University community to commit ourselves to honest, ethical behaviour in our academic work and to
encourage others to do likewise. You must read the Student Code of Academic Conduct so you are
familiar with Ryerson’s policies and procedures: http://www.ryerson.ca/academicintegrity/
Plagiarism
The Ryerson Student Code of Academic Conduct defines plagiarism and the sanctions against students
who plagiarize. All Chang School students are strongly encouraged to go on the academic integrity
website at www.ryerson.ca/academicintegrity/ and complete the tutorial on plagiarism. Please do not, in
any shape or form, commit the act of plagiarism. If you are having ANY difficulties with the course
material, or with essay writing, or even with reading and understanding, please email me or make an
appointment to see me.
Ryerson Student Email
All students in full and part-time graduate and undergraduate degree programs and all continuing
education students are required to activate and maintain their Ryerson online identity at
www.ryerson.ca/accounts in order to regularly access Ryerson’s Email (Rmail). RAMSS, my.ryerson.ca
portal and learning system, and other systems by which they will receive official University
communications. Be sure your account is active and your Rmail accessible in order to access the
Blackboard for this course.
Course Repeats
Senate GPA Policy prevents students from taking a course more than three times. For complete GPA
Policy see policy No. 46 at www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies
Ryerson Academic Policies
For more information on Ryerson’s academic policies, visit the Senate website at www.ryerson.ca/senate
Course Management Policy No.145
Student Code of Academic Conduct No.60
Student Code of Non-Academic Conduct No.61
Examination Policy No.135
Policy on Grading, Promotion, and Academic Standing Policy No.46
Undergraduate Academic Consideration and Appeals Policy No.134
Accommodation of Student Religious Observance Obligations Policy No.50
Grading Breakdown
The following is an explanation of the grading scheme adopted by the History Department.
A+
A
AAn outstanding performance. A student must demonstrate a full knowledge and understanding of the
subject matter, show a good ability to analyze and to criticize the analyses of others, organize material
well and explain issues clearly, be able to discuss issues in their broader context, and demonstrate some
originality.
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B+
B
BA good, above average performance. A student must demonstrate quite a full understanding and
knowledge of the subject matter, show a good ability to analyze issues, and some ability to be critical of
the analyses of others, organize material and explain issues reasonably clearly and be able to discuss
issues in a broader context.
C+
C
CAn adequate, average performance. A student must demonstrate a fair understanding of and knowledge
of the subject matter, organize material and explain issues fairly clearly, and show some ability to analyze
issues involved in the material under study.
D+
D
DA minimum passing grade. A student must be able to demonstrate some knowledge of the subject matter,
some ability to organize material and explain issues, and some realization of what aspects of the subject
under study are relevant to the questions asked.
CLASS SCHEDULE
WEEK 1.
HISTORY OF MEDICINE: AN ANCIENT TRADITION
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 11
· introduction · concepts of health and disease · social history of medicine · cultural history of the body · prehistory ·
Further Readings
W.F. Bynum and R. Porter, Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine (London & New York:
1993).
L. Conard et al, The Western Medical Tradition; 800 BC to AD 1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1995.
M. Lindemann, Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999).
R. Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity (New York & London: W.W.
Norton & Company, 1997).
C.E. Rosenberg and J. Golden (eds.), Framing Disease: Studies in Cultural History (Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press, 1992).
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WEEK 2.
THE ROOTS OF WESTERN MEDICAL TRADITION: GRECO-ROMAN MEDICINE
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 18
· Hippocrates (460-c.377 BC) · Aristotle (384-322 BC) · patient-oriented medicine · Four humours & Four elements ·
· Hellenistic medicine · Galen (129-216?) · anatomy · medical sects · Alexandrian autopsy and dissection ·
Readings
Vivien Nutton, “Medicine in the Greek World, 800-50 BC,” in The Western Medical Tradition: 800 BC to AD
1800. Eds. L. Conard et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp.11-38.
Vivien Nuton, “Roman Medicine, 250 BC-200 AD,” in The Western Medical Tradition: 800 BC to AD 1800.
Eds. L. Conard et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp.39-70.
Hippocrates, “The Oath” (400 BC) http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/hippooath.html
Galen, “The Best Doctor is also a Philosopher,” in Galen, Selected Works, tr. P.N. Singer (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1997), pp.30-34.
Discussion Questions
 Why do you think the humoral theory had such a strong explanatory power? Why is balance such
an important concept?
 What are some prominent features of the Oath? Why do you think this is so?
 According to Galen, why is the best physician also a philosopher?
 What similar or different features do you observe between Greek and Roman medicine?
Further Readings
D.W. Amuddsen, Medicine, Society and Faith in the Ancient and Medieval World (Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1996).
R. Flemming, Medicine and the Making of Roman Women: Gender, Nature, and Authority from Celsus to
Galen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
H. King, Hippocrates’ Woman: Reading the Female Body in Ancient Greece (London: Rougledge, 1998).
H.King, Greek and Roman Medicine (Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 2001).
S. Kuriyama, The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine (New York:
Zone Books, 1999).
J. Longrigg, “Anatomy in Alexandria in the Third Century BC,” British Journal for the History of Science 21
(1988): 455-488.
J. Longrigg, Greek Medicine: From the Heroic to the Hellinistic Age (London: Duckworth, 1998).
J. Longrigg, Greek Rational Medicine: Philosophy and Medicine from Alcemeon to the Alexandrians (London:
Routledge, 1993).
V. Nutton, Ancient Medicine (London & New York: Routledge, 2004).
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WEEK 3.
CHRISTIANITY AND THE TRANSLATION OF TEXTS
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 25
· Hellenistic medicine · monastic scribes · Galenism · encyclopaedias · religious healing · practical medicine ·
Readings
Vivien Nutton, “Medicine in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages,” in The Western Medical Tradition:
800 BC to AD 1800. Eds. L. Conard et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp.71-89.
Gary B. Ferngren, “Early Christianity as a Religion of Healing,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 66
(1992): 1-15.
Medieval Manuscripts at Thomas Fisher Library (University of Toronto):
http://link.library.utoronto.ca/vellum/
Browse through UCLA’s Index of Medieval Medical Images: http://digital.library.ucla.edu/immi/
Discussion Questions
 What exactly is the Christian practice of healing?
 What strengths and/or weakness can you gather from the scriptorium practices?
 What observations can you make from the medieval manuscripts? What do you think they signify?
Further Readings
D.W. Amuddsen, Medicine, Society and Faith in the Ancient and Medieval World (Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1996).
D.W. Amundsen, “Medicine and Faith in Early Christianity,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 56 (1982):
356-50.
B. Bowers, The Medieval Hospital and Medical Practice (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007).
M.L. Cameron, Anglo-Saxon Medicine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
W. Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
F. Getz, Medicine in the English Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
B. Harvey, Living and Dying in England, 1100-1540: The Monastic Experience (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1995).
A. Montford, Health, Sickness, Medicine and the Friars in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).
F.S. Paxton, “Curing Bodies, Curing Souls: Hrabanus Maurus, Medical Education, and the Clergy in NinthCentury Francia,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 50 (1995): 230-252.
C. Rawcliffe, Medicine & Society in Later Medieval England (Sutton, 1995).
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WEEK 4.
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 2
THE ARAB-ISLAMIC MEDICAL WORLD
· assimilation of humoural medicine · Avicenna (1126-98) · Islamic medicine · Arabic medicine · al-Razi · patrons & patronage
Readings
Lawrence Conard, “The Arab-Islamic Tradition,” in The Western Medical Tradition: 800 BC to AD 1800.
Eds. L. Conard et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp.93-138.
E. Savage-Smith, “Attitudes Towards Dissection in Medieval Islam,” Journal of the History of Medicine and
Allied Sciences 50:1 (1995): 67-110.
Avicenna, Canon. Book 1, Fen 1. In E. Grant, ed. A Source Book in Medieval Science (Cambridge MA:
Harvard University Press, 1974).
Discussion Questions
 Why is al-Razi referred as the “Galen of the Arabs?” What implications can such a title have?
 Is religion and/or magic dominant in the Arab-Islamic tradition? How? Why?
What are the attitudes toward dissection in Medieval Islam? Does differ from Greco-Roman times?
Further Readings
C. Alvarez-Millán, “Graeco-Roman Case Histories and their Influence on Medieval Islamic Clinical
Accounts,” Social History of Medicine 12 (1999): 19-33.
L. Chipman, The World of Pharmacy and Pharmacists in Mamlūk Cairo (Leiden, 2009).
M.D. Dols, “The Leper in Medieval Islamic Society,” Speculum 58 (1983): 891-916.
M.D. Dols, “The Origins of the Islamic Hospital: Myth and Reality,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 61
(1987): 367-390.
D. Jacquart, “The Influence of Arabic Medicine in the Medieval West,” in R. Rashed, Encyclopedia of the
History of Arabic Science vol. 3 (London, 1996), 963-984.
G. Leiser, “Medical Education in Islamic Lands from the Seventh to the Fourteenth Century,” Journal of the
History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 38 (1983): 48-75.
M.S. Mossensohn, Ottoman Medicine: Health and Medical Institutions, 1500-1700 (New York, 2009).
P.E. Pormann, “The Physician and the Other: Images of the Charlatan in Medieval Islam,” Bulletin of the
History of Medicine 79 (2005): 189-227.
P.E. Pormann and E. Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic Medicine (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University
Press, 2006).
E. Savage-Smith, “Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts” at
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/islamic_medical/islamic_00.html
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WEEK 5.
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 9
DISEASE AND SOCIETY
*GUEST LECTURER
· Black Death · community · legislation · mortality · God-sent punishment · public-health measures · social responses ·
Readings
Katherine Park, “The Black Death,” in Kenneth F. Kiple (ed.), The Cambridge World History of Human
Disease (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp.612-616.
J. Arrizabalaga, “Facing the Black Death: Perceptions and Reactions of University Medical Practitioners,”
in L. Garcia-Balleser, R. French, and J. Arrizabalga (eds.), Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black
Death (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp.237-288.
“The Report of the Paris Medical Faculty, October 1348” in R. Horrox. The Black Death (Vancouver:
Manchester University Press, 1994), pp.158-163.
G. Boccaccio, “Introduction to the Decameron (c. 1350),” Boccaccio, The Decameron. trans. M. Rigg,
(London: David Campbell, 1921), Vol. 1, 5-11. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/boccacio2.html)
“Petararch on the Death of his Friends,” in R. Horrox (ed.), The Black Death (Vancouver: Manchester
University Press, 1994), pp.248-249.
Discussion Questions
 In what ways does Boccaccio capture the experiences of plague-stricken cities?
 What guidelines did the Paris Medical Faculty recommend for dealing with plague? What
explanations for these guidelines did they offer?
 How did Christians see the relationship between plague and sin? Why?
Further Readings
D.W. Amudsen, Medicine, Society, and Faith in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1996).
J. Arrizabalga, J. Henderson, and R. French, The Great Pox: The French Disease in Renaissance Europe (New
Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1997).
A.G. Carmichael, Plague and the Poor in Renaissance Florence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1986).
M. Dols, “The comparative Communal Responses to the Black Death in Muslim and Christian Societies,”
Viator 5 (1975): 269-287.
F.M. Getz, “Black Death and the Silver Lining: Meaning, Continuity, and Revolutionary Changes in
Histories of Medieval Plague,” Journal of the History of Biology 24 (1991): 265-289.
C. Jones, “Plague and its Metaphors in Early Modern France,” Representations 53 (1996): 97-127.
R. Palmer, “The Church, Leprosy and Plague in Medieval and Early Modern Europe,” Studies in Church
History 19 (1982): 79-99.
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WEEK 6.
HOSPITALS, UNIVERSITIES, & LEARNED MEDICINE
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 16
MIDTERM REVIEW
· teaching methods · institutional history · print and books · Canon as textbook · medical curriculum · leper hospitals
Readings
Nancy G. Siraisi, “Medical Education,” in Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to
Knowledge and Practice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), pp.48-65.
Martha Karlin, “Medieval English Hospitals,” in Lindsay Granshaw & Roy Porter (eds.), The Hospital in
History (London: Routledge, 1988), pp.21-40.
Discussion Questions
 Did the hospital emphasize the Christian duty of charity? How did it, if at all, conflict with the role
of the physician?
 How did the Articella mark a turning point in the revival of medicine in the West and what role did
it play in university curriculum?
Further Readings
K. Park and J. Henderson, “The First Hospital Among Christians: The Ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova in
Early Sixteenth Century Florence,” Medical History 35:2 (1991): 164-188.
B. Bowers, The Medieval Hospital and Medical Practice (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007).
S. Cavallo, Charity and Power in Early Modern Italy: Benefactors and their Motives in Turin, 1541-1789
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
B. Harvey, Living and Dying in England, 1100-1540: The Monastic Experience (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1995).
J. Henderson, The Renaissance Hospital: Healing the Body and Healing the Soul (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2006).
N. Siraisi, Avicenna in Renaissance Italy: The Canon and Medical Teaching in Italian Universities after 1500
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981).
K. Park, “Healing the Poor: Hospitals and Medical Assistance in Renaissance Florence,” in J. Barry and C.
Jones (eds.), Medicine and Charity Before the Welfare State (London: Routledge, 1991), 26-45.
M. Rubin, “Imagining Medieval Hospitals: Considerations on the Cultural Meaning of Institutional
Change,” in J. Barry and C. Jones (eds.), Medicine and Charity Before the Welfare State (London: Routledge,
1991), 14-25.
L. Granshaw and R. Porter (eds.), The Hospital in History (London: Routledge, 1988).
O’Boyle, The Art of Medicine: Medical Teaching at the University of Paris, 1250-1400 (Leiden; Brill
Publications, 1998).
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WEEK 7
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 23
MIDTERM
WEEK 8.
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 30
SURGEONS & THEIR TOOLS
· barber-surgeons · instrumentation · history of objects · guilds · wounds debate · Henri Mondeville · Guy de Chauliac
Readings
Nancy G. Siraisi, “Surgeons and Surgery,” in Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to
Knowledge and Practice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), pp.153-186.
Margaret Pelling, “Appearance and Reality: Barber-Surgeons, the Body, and Disease,” in A.L. Beier and R.
Finaly (eds.), London 1500-1700: The Making of the Metropolis (New York: Longman, 1986), 82-112.
Guy de Chauliac, “History of Surgery,” in E. Grant, ed. A Source Book in Medieval Science (Cambridge MA:
Harvard University Press, 1974), 791-795.
Henry of Mondeville, “The Treatment of Wounds,” in E. Grant, ed. A Source Book in Medieval Science
(Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 803-806.
Guy de Chauliac, “The Treatment of Wounds,” in E. Grant, ed. A Source Book in Medieval Science
(Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 806-807.
Discussion Questions
 Why did Guy de Chauliac reject Henri de Mondeville’s method of wound treatment?
 How important were surgical instruments for asserting the surgeon’s hands-on knowledge and
authority?
 What assessments can you make about the patients that encountered these procedures at the
barbershop?
Further Readings
T. Hunt, The Medieval Surgery (Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 1992).
G. Lawrence, “Surgery Traditional,” in W.F. Bynum and R. Porter (eds.), Companion Encyclopedia of the
History of Medicine vol.2 (London & New York: Routledge, 1993), 961-983.
G. Manjo, The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1975).
M.S. Spink and G.L. Lewis, Albucasis on Surgery and Instruments (London: The Wellcome Institute of the
History of Medicine, 1973).
L. Toledo-Pereyra, “Galen’s contribution to surgery” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
28 (1973): 357-75.
O.H. Wangensteen & S.D. Wangensteen, The Rise of Surgery: From Empiric Craft to Scientific Discipline
(Minneapolis/Folkstone, 1978).
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WEEK 9.
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 6
MEDICINAL MAGIC
· occult medicine · astrology · religious healers · miracles · the sickbed · alchemy
Readings
Katherine Park, “Magic and Medicine: The Healing Arts,” in Judith C. Brown and Robert C. Davis (eds.),
Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy, London: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998.
Roger French, “Astrology in Medical Practice,” in L. Garcia-Ballester, R. French, and J. Arrizabalaga (eds.),
Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 3059.
Anniina Jokien, “Zodiac Man; Man as Microcosm,” Luminarium 1 Oct 2011 [Accessed August 2012]
http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/zodiacman.htm
Discussion Questions
 Why was an understanding of astrology fundamentally important to a physician’s practice?
 Can you derive any connections from the Zodiac Man and the humoural theory?
 Discuss why herbal-based remedies were popular as (self-) treatments.
Further Readings
D.W. Amuddsen, Medicine, Society and Faith in the Ancient and Medieval World (Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1996).
A.G. Debus, The French Paracelsians: The Chemical Challenge to Medical and Scientific Tradition in Early
Modern France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
A. Grafton and N. Siraisi, “Between the Election and my Hopes: Girolamo Cardano and Medical Astrology,”
in W. Newman and A. Grafton (eds.), Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe
(Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 2001), 69-131.
J. Harley, “Historians as Demonologists: The Myth of the Midwife-Witch,” Social History of Medicine 3
(1990): 1-26.
L. Kassell, Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan. Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist, and Physician (Oxford:
Claredon Press, 2005).
S. Page, Astrology in Medieval Manuscripts (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2002).
R. Palmer, “Medical Botany in Northern Italy in the Renaissance,” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
78 (1985): 149-157.
N. Siraisi, “The Medicine of Dreams,” in The Clock and the Mirror: Girolamo Cardano and Renaissance
Medicine (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 174-191.
N.G. Siraisi, “The Hidden and the Marvelous,” in The Clock and the Mirror: Girolamo Cardano and
Renaissance Medicine (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 149-173.
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WEEK 10.
THE HOUSEHOLD: WOMEN AS HEALERS
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 20
· gender · sex · childbirth · anatomy illustrations · midwifery · physician’s role· religious doctrine · household practice ·
Readings
M. Cabré, “Women or Healers? Household Practices and the Categories of Health Care in Late Medieval
Iberia,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 82.1 (2008), pp.18-51.
Elaine Leong, “Making Medicines in the Early Modern Household,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 82.1
(2008), pp.145-86.
M. H. Green (ed.), The Trotula: a Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine (Philadelphia, University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2001), pp. 92-115 and selected pages from the Introduction.
Discussion Questions
 Who is Trotula? What do the texts attributed to Trotula reveal about women’s health and women‘s
bodies?
 What do you notice about the presentation of female bodies in the woodcuts of Jacobo Berengario?
 Why is the household important for maintaining health?
Further Readings
J. Cadden, The Meanings of Sex Differences in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Natural Philosophy, and Culture
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
M. Fissell, “Gender and Generation: Representing Reproduction in Early Modern England,” Gender and
History 7:3 (1995): 433-456.
R. Flemming, Medicine and the Making of Roman Women: Gender, Nature, and Authority from Celsus to
Galen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
M.H. Green, “Women’s Medical Practice and Health Care in Medieval Europe,” Signs: Journal of Women in
Culture 14 (1989): 434-473.
M.H. Green, Making Women’s Medicine Masculine: The Rise of Male Authority in Pre-Modern Gynecology
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
H. King, Hippocrates’ Woman: Reading the Female Body in Ancient Greece (London: Rougledge, 1998).
D. Jacquart and C. Thomasset, Sexuality and Medicine in the Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1985).
H. Marland (ed.), The Art of Midwifery: Early Modern Midwives in Europe (London; Routledge, 1993).
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WEEK 11.
PROMISING A CURE: THE NATURE OF PLURALISTIC MEDICINE
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 27
· medical pluralism · quackery · medical marketplace · patient’s choices · contracts for cures · surgeons & apothecaries ·
Readings
David Gentlicore, “Medical Pluralism in the Kingdom of Naples,” in Healers and Healing in Early Modern
Italy (Oxford: Manchester University Press, 1998), pp.1-28.
David Gentilcore, “Charlatans, Mountebanks, and other Similar People: The Regulation and Role of
itinerant Practitioners in Early Modern Italy,” Social History 20 (1995): 291-231.
Discussion Questions
 What is meant by a patient being “medically promiscuous?”
 Do you think Gentlicore’s model of medical pluralism is effective in capturing the diversity of
practitioners and practices? Why or why not?
Further Readings:
W. Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
D. Gentilcore, Healers and Healing in Early Modern Italy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998).
D. Gentilcore, From Bishop to Witch: The System of the Sacred in Early Modern Terra d’Otarnto
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992).
D. Gentilcore, Medical Charlatanism in Early Modern Italy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
L. Roper, Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe (London:
Routledge, 1994).
K. Park, Doctors and Medicine in Early Renaissance Florence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985).
M. Pelling and C. Webster, “Medical Practitioners,” in C. Webster (ed.), Health, Medicine, and Mortality in
the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1985), 165-236.
G. Pomata, Contracting a Cure: Patients and Healers, and the Law in Early Modern Bologna (Baltimore:
John Hopkins University Press, 1998).
P.E. Pormann, “The Physician and the Other: Images of the Charlatan in Medieval Islam,” Bulletin of the
History of Medicine 79 (2005): 189-227.
Robert Ralley, “Medical Economies in Fifteenth Century England,” in Mark Jenner and Patrick Wallis
(eds.), Medicine and the Market in England and its Colonies, c.1450-1850 (New York: Palgrave Macmillian,
2007), pp.24-46.
V. Nutton, “Healers in a Medical Market Place: Towards a Social History of Greco-Roman Medicine,” in A.
Wear (ed.), Medicine in Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 15-58.
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WEEK 12.
THE RENAISSANCE ANATOMICAL THEATRE
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 4
REVIEW FOR FINAL
· dissection· Renaissance humanism · practical medicine · Vesalius · folios · illustrations and woodcuts ·
Readings
Andrea Carlino, “Representing the Body: The Visual Culture of Renaissance Anatomy” in Paper Bodies: A
Catalogue of Anatomical Fugitive Sheets (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1999),
pp.1-45.
Nancy G. Siraisi, “Vesalius and the reading of Galen's teleology,” Renaissance Quarterly 50 (1997): 1-37.
Andreas Vesalius, “To the Divine Charles V,” “Preface,” and “Instructions to the Printer,” and various
woodcuts in de Humani corporis fabrica (1543).
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/vesalius_home.html
Discussion Questions
 Do you consider Vesalius to be a “true Galenist?” Why or why not?
 What features do you notice in Vesalius’ instructions to his printer? Why do you think these
instructions were important?
 How have representations of the body transformed in Renaissance medicine? How do the
representations differ from medieval accounts of the body?
Further Readings
A. Carlino, Books of the Body: Anatomical Ritual and Renaissance Learning (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1999).
A. Cunningham, The Anatomical Renaissance: The Resurrection of the Anatomical Projects of the Ancients
(Aldershot: Scholar Press, 1997).
G. Ferrari, “Public Anatomy Lessons and the Carnival: The Anatomy Theatre of Bologna,” Past and Present
117 (1987): 50-106.
R. French, Dissection and Vivisection in the European Renaissance (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999).
M. Kemp, “The Mark of Truth; Looking and Learning in Some Anatomical Illustrations from the
Renaissance and the Eighteenth Century,’ in W. Bynum and R. Porter (eds.), Medicine and the Five Senses
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 85-121.
K. Park, “The Life of the Corpse: Division and Dissection in Late Medieval Europe,” Journal of the History of
Medicine 50 (1995): 111-132.
K. Park, “The Criminal and the Saintly Body: Autopsy and Dissection in Renaissance Italy,” Renaissance
Quarterly 47 (1994): 1-33.
N. G. Siraisi, “The Uses of Anatomy,” in The Clock and the Mirror: Girolamo Cardano and Renaissance
Medicine (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 93-118.
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