The period from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment constitutes a vital phase in the history of European medicine. This volume contains a selection of classical writing and up-to-date research in the field, and extracts from contemporary sources.

AcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Medical practice and theory: The classical and medieval heritage2. The sick body and its healers, 1500–17003. The medical renaissance of the sixteenth century: Vesalius, medical humanism and bloodletting4. Medicine and religion in sixteenth-century Europe5. Chemical medicine and the challenge to Galenism: The legacy of Paracelsus6. Charity, the state and public health in early modern Europe7. New models of the body, 1600–18008. Women and medicine in early modern Europe9. The care and cure of the insane in early modern Europe10. War and medicine in early modern Europe11. Environment, health and population, 1500–180012. European medicine in the age of colonialism13. Medical organisation, training and the medical marketplace in eighteenth-century EuropeIndex

Health, disease and society in Europe 1500-1800 considers how the body was viewed by the medical profession from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, and challenges established ideas in the field of medical history. It examines the provision of medical care in context and how it was shaped by the social, religious, political and cultural concerns of the age. Arranged thematically and with brief but scholarly introductions, the selection of documents includes contemporary sources, recent research in the field and classical writings. Written in an accessible style by an Open University lecturer. This is a companion volume to The Healing Arts: Health, Disease and Society in Europe 1500–1800.