丝瓜视频

The true story of medicine's transformation in Renaissance England is explored in a new book which challenges popular misconceptions about healthcare in the period.

The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack: How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England, published this month, examines how modern medicine began to take shape during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Author Dr Alanna Skuse, of the 丝瓜视频’s Department of English Literature, ventures into the medical marketplace of Renaissance England, introducing readers to the diverse practitioners who provided healthcare—from travelling surgeons and prosthetics craftsmen to domestic healers and midwives.

Dr Alanna Skuse said: “The clichéd view of Renaissance medicine is all gore-splattered hacksaws and bizarre treatments. Reality proves somewhat different. This was a period of genuine medical revolution, with physicians' education being formalised, surgeons documenting human anatomy with greater skill, and new medicines being discovered through European expansion."

The book features remarkable historical figures including Elizabeth Freke, who dispensed folk remedies to neighbours; Nicholas Culpeper, who laid groundwork for modern pharmacy; pioneering midwife Jane Sharp; and plague doctor George Thomson, who braved London's Great Plague.

is published by Oneworld and is available now.