Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine

Siraisi, Nancy. Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine provides a historical overview of Western European medical practice, theory, and social reception. Due to the breadth of subject matter, encompassing several aspects of medicine in a wide spatial and temporal frame, Siraisi's book is best suited as a topical introduction. She begins by outlining the foundations of medieval and renaissance medicine, stressing its Greek intellectual roots. Medieval and renaissance medical practitioners are analyzed generally according to social standing, wealth, experience and practice without marginalizing exceptions. Time is devoted to a smaller number of female physicians and surgeons, Jewish practitioners and saintly miracle healers. University medical education is discussed in terms of its curricula, interdisciplinarity, practical application and social reception. The study includes an introduction to anatomical methodology from its Hellenistic roots to the sixteenth-century new anatomy dependent on human dissection. The book explores the definitions of health and disease, typical treatments (diet, medication and surgery) and complexion theory. While other historical interpretations are limited to either medieval or renaissance medicine, an editorial choice that enforces periodization, Siraisi widens her scope to include some of both. One strength of her study is its inclusiveness despite necessary generalities. It would be most useful to those interested in medieval and renaissance body rhetoric, the medical profession, its founding principles or early anatomy/surgery.

This book is available on the open reserves shelf at the library.