History of Science Society

University of Chicago Press

Review
Author(s): Allen G. Debus
Review by: Allen G. Debus
Source: Isis, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Jun., 1986), pp. 374-375
Published by: University of Chicago Press on behalf of History of Science Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/232709
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374 BOOKREVIEWS-ISIS, 77: 2: 287 (1986)
the crisis broughton by the plague reveals
a more accuratepicture.
The Black Death brought not only dis-
credit to the physicians and misgivings to
their sons, who otherwise would have suc-
ceeded them, but also an influx of empirics
and other newcomersfrom outside the city.
This crisis provoked efforts to restore pub-
lic confidence, to tighten licensing, to pro-
tect the interests of the native Florentine
physicians, and to concentratetheir control
over the medical branch of the guild in a
College of Doctors. The failure of these at-
tempts suggests that academic consolida-
tion without political influence was insuffi-
cient to account for the development of a
profession. Meanwhile, however, the com-
munal provision of medical care expanded
so that most people, at least in the city, had
a wide variety of health services available
throughpublic doctors, apothecaryclinics,
membershipin confraternities,and the hos-
pitals, which were becoming more devoted
to sick care. Such evidence challenges the
conventionalview that academic organiza-
tion, a prerequisiteto professionalization,
was followed much later by a system of
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Petrus de Montagnana
early Renaissance physician. riscos in the sixteenth century.
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practice that could adequately serve the
generalpopulation.In fact, also contraryto
common opinion, the records show that
only a fractionof privatepracticewas dedi-
cated to aristocraticpatients.
In addition to the physicians' careers as
documentedin the archives, their libraries
and writings belie the image of medical
scholasticism as mired in stagnant dogma
and alien to contemporary culture. This
imagebecame a stereotype throughthe dia-
tribes of the Humanists, but Park argues
that the celebrated invective has obscured
the scholastic doctors' interest in the new
art and learningas well as their full partici-
pation in the corporate life of Florence.
Her account of this participation,of inter-
nal guild dynamics, and of the practi-
tioners' personal motives may strike some
skeptics as too sympathetic. To others her
theses may seem hardly applicableoutside
the northernItaliancity-states. Even skep-
tics, however, will agree that Katharine
Park's lucid and richly documented study
belongs with the best of recent scholarship
both on Florence and on the early medical
milieu.
LUKE E. DEMAITRE
A. Wear; R. K. French; I. M. Lonie (Edi-
tors). The Medical Renaissance of the Six-
teenth Century. xvi + 349 pp., bibl., index.
Cambridge/London/NewYork: Cambridge
University Press, 1985. $59.50.
This volume of essays results from a con-
ference held at Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge,in September1983. It is clearly
a valuable book on an importantsubject.
Most of the authors are acknowledgedau-
thorities in the field, and the papers are
substantial. Among the contributors we
find C. B. Schmitt, N. G. Siraisi, R. K.
French, V. Nutton, A. Wear, I. M. Lonie,
J. J. Bylebyl, and L. Garcia-Ballester.Top-
ics include the relation of philosophy to
medicine in sixteenth-centuryuniversities,
the meaning of humanism in Renaissance
medicine and surgery, Jean Fernel's use of
occult causes in his explanationof disease,
and the pulse controversy prior to William
Harvey. I found particularly interesting
Andrew Cunningham'spaper, in which he
asserts that Girolamo Fabrici was con-
sciously recreatingthe researchprogramof
Aristotle in his anatomicalwork at Padua,
and Garcia-Ballester's discussion of the
rapid decline of the medicine of the mo-
 BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS,
But, granted the many good points of the
volume, there are real faults as well. The
group represented here forms a rather small
international fraternity, and they were pri-
marily talking to each other. Many poten-
tial readers would have benefited from an
introductory chapter setting the scene-
one that might have explained the basic
differences between Arabic and Greek
medicine or the conflict between the Aris-
totelians and the Galenists. These are sub-
jects that recur frequently; they are impor-
tant and deserve some discussion early in
the volume.
A more serious problem is the title cho-
sen for this volume, which is clearly mis-
leading. A large percentage of the papers
deal with a "Galenic renaissance" and med-
ical education in the sixteenth century. But
it is difficult to understand how anyone
could organize a conference on sixteenth-
century medicine without highlighting in
some way the work and influence of Para-
celsus or his followers. The short introduc-
tion notes that Walter Pagel had started
such a study for this book but died before it
was completed. And, to be sure, lip service
is paid to the need for such a chapter: "For
this book, the existence of Paracelsian
medicine is significant because it shows
that there was a radical alternative to Ga-
lenic medicine; it provided a place for those
who were so dissatisfied with Galenic med-
icine that they could not be content to
merely modify it" (pp. xv-xvi). But it is im-
plied that such a chapter is not absolutely
necessary, since "[Paracelsus's] followers
did not exert any influence until the second
half of the century and it was not until the
beginning of the seventeenth century that
they made a major impact on the bastions
of Galenic orthodoxy in countries such as
England and France." This statement is not
entirely true: the Parisian medical estab-
lishment had surely taken a stand against
the new chemical remedies by 1578; and
Guenther von Andernach, whose teaching
in Paris and work as a medical humanist are
mentioned a number of times, praised the
Paracelsian remedies in 1571 in his work on
the old and the new medicine. There was
an increasing interest in the use of distilla-
tion methods throughout the century, and
this is reflected in the herbals of the period.
Wlodzimierz Hubicki pointed to the fact
that the chemical chapters in the works of
Arnald of Villanova were frequently re-
quired reading for sixteenth-century medi-
cal students, and George Urdang noted that
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77: 2 287 (1986) 375
even the earliest plan for an official phar-
macopoeia discussed by the Royal College
of Physicians (1589) included a section of
chemical medicines. Frankly, the unfortu-
nate death of Walter Pagel is no excuse for
the omission from this volume of such an
important part of Renaissance medicine,
since there are a number of scholars who
might have been called on to substitute for
him-not only in England, but from the
Continent or North America. I think that
this omission is symptomatic of the persis-
tent reluctance of historians of medicine to
deal with chemistry, even when it is ob-
viously germane to a given topic. In the end
only Richard Palmer's "Pharmacy in the
Republic of Venice in the Sixteenth Cen-
tury" contains any material on the new
medicines. The seven pages he devotes to
the topic give new information on the Ital-
ian scene, but the subject is of enough sig-
nificance to warrant far more attention than
it received.
It should be added by way of a postscript
that this is an expensive volume. We nor-
mally expect quality bindings from Cam-
bridge University Press, but this volume
was bound with plastic-covered boards.
Surely we deserve better for our sixty-dol-
lar outlay.
ALLEN G. DEBUS
* Seventeenth & Eighteenth Centuries
Marius D'Assigny. The Art of Memory: A
Treatise Usefil foor Such as Are to Speak in
Puiblick. With an introduction by Michael
V. DePorte. (Scientific Awakening in the
Restoration, 1.) xiv + xxiv + 91 pp. New
York: AMS Press, 1985. $45.
Walter Charleton. The Immortality of' the
Hluman Solul, Demonstrated by the Light of
Natlure. With an introduction by J. M. Ar-
mistead. (Scientific Awakening in the Res-
toration, 2.) xix + 188 pp., illus. New
York: AMS Press, 1985. $87.50.
Samuel Parker. A Free and Impartial Cen-
slure of the Platonick Philosophie: Being a
Letter Written to His Much Honolured
Friend, M.N.B. With an introduction by
Ken Robinson. (Scientific Awakening in the
Restoration, 3.) xv + 115 pp. New York:
AMS Press, 1985. $45.
These reprints represent the first three
offerings in a series that one hopes will con-
tribute to the ongoing reassessment of the