Renaissance Period

• Overview


  • Survivors of the Black Death were payed higher wages meaning they could afford to educate their children and so a more educated and secular generation arose
  • As Protestantisme spread across Europe, the Catholic Church was less able to promote its beliefs and control medicine
• Continuity from the Middle Ages

  • Miasma theory
  • Superstition-arculets and charms were worn, but were also loosing popularity
  • The influence of the Church, though it was loosing popularity
• Changes after the Middle Ages

  • Decline in influence of the Church
  • Theory of 4 humours had been discredited by the end of the 17th century, however the theory continued to be used to diagnose illness as patients understood it
• The rise of Humanism

  • Renaissance humanists interested in what it means to be a human being + how to live a virtuous life and participate in Society
  • They sought to answer these questions by studying ancient art and literature
  • They trusted scientific evidence and reason to discover the truths about the universe
• Animalcules

  A new idea that little animals were the cause of illness
• Animalcules

  • Idea developed after they could be seen by newly invented, more powerful microscopes
  • Dutch scientist Van Leeuwenhoek developed these microscopes at the end of the period by 1683
  • These images were not very clear, but were visible
• Surgeons

  Developed their skills from experiences, often on the job
• Surgeons

  • New warfare technology, such as firearms, led to new wounds which required new treatments
• Apothecaries

  • Had access to new ingredients due to the discovery of new chemicals
  • Had to join a guild meaning they had to carry out apprenticeships under the tutalege of a master in order to become an apothecary
  • Both surgeons and apothecaries had to possess a license in order to practice their trade
• Physicians

  • Continued to brain at universities with little change
  • Dissection legalized due to the decline in the power of the Church
  • Fresh corpses difficult to acquire
  • Continued to rely on books, such as those of Galen
  • Training advanced as physicians were inspired to challenge old teachings and investigate for themselves
• Hospitals

  • Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries led to the closing of many hospitals that had been run by monks and nurses
  • Those that remained open began to accept people with wounds and curable diseases such as fevers + skin conditions
  • These people were not allowed to stay for long, but could see physician
  • Some reopened e.g. St Bart's in London which was re-founded by Henry VII in 1546
• Dealing with the Great Plague, London, 1665


  Ideas about cause
• Ideas about cause


  • Astrology: unusual alignment of the planets in 1664
  • Punishment from God to cleanse man of his sins
  • An imbalance of the four humous
  • Miasma: bad air caused by foul smelling rubbish
  • Person to person by touch (transference)
• Different to Black Death 1348


  Similar to Black Death 1348
• Prevention and Treatment


  • Prayers were recited
  • Plague victims were quarantined for 28 days
  • People encouraged to carry a pomander to drive away bad air
  • Fasting took place and some changed their diet to include a lot of garlic
  • Plague doctors treated patients wearing a bird like mask, with sweet smelling herbs inside to ward off miasma
  • Smoking tobacco to ward off miasma
• Government involvement


  • Local authorities tried to prevent the plague from spreading
  • Banning public meetings, funerals and fairs
  • Closing theatres
  • Sweeping streets clean
  • Burning barrels of tar and sweet-smelling herbs to ward off miasma
  • Killing cats (200,000) and dogs (40,000)
  • Appointing searchers to monitor the spread of the disease and clear victims' bodies from towns
• This was far more direct government involvement than there had been in 1348
• Changes after the Middle Ages

  • People started to believe in transference, the idea that a disease or illness could be transferred to something else
  • Patients with fevers slept with sheep in their bed with the hope the fever would transfer to the animal
  • People began to look for chemical cures for diseases rather than relying on herbs e.g. Mercury & antimony used to treat syphilis and typhoid
  • Ideas that weather conditions were the cause of disease became more popular and so some would relocate to avoid disease
  • Hospitals began to treat people with wounds and curable diseases
  • New pest houses, plague houses or pox houses introduced that specialised in one particular disease
• Thomas Sydenham

  A doctor in London in the 1960s and 1670s
• Thomas Sydenham

  • Moved medicine away from the ideas of Hippocrates and Galen
  • Believed in observing the symptoms of a patient, noting them down in detailed descriptions and then looking for remedies to treat the disease, rather than relying on medical books
  • Believed each disease was different and therefore each treatment needed to be different
  • Identified measles and scarlet fever as separate diseases and popularised the use of Cinchona bark from Peru to treat malaria
• William Harvey

  Born in 1570, first studied at Cambridge University, before moving to the famous medical school at Padua
• William Harvey's research

  1. Dissecting human corpses

  2. Cutting open cold blooded animals which have slower heartbeats which enabled their blood to be observed while they were still alive

  3. Proved that arteries and veins were linked together through one system

  4. Showed that only the veins carried the blood and the heart acted as a pump
• William Harvey's theory was that blood must pass from arteries to veins through tiny passages invisible to the naked eye, which we now know as capillaries
• Technology may have helped William Harvey as he saw new pumping engines used, which may have given him an idea
• Johannes Gutenberg


  Invented the first printing press in 1440
• Influence of the Printing Press

  • Enabled medical information to spread further and more quickly
  • Contributed to the decline in influence of the Church (who were the only ones that copied books before this)
  • Books could be printed relatively cheaply and physicians were able to publish books that criticised Galen
  • By 1500 printing presses were being used throughout Europe
• Vesalius

  • Studied in Paris, heavily influenced by new humanist ideas about medicine
  • Later went to Padua to become a lecturer in surgery
  • Published his most famous book: "On the Fabric of the Human Body" in 1543
• Vesalius

  • Was able to dissect a number of executed criminals
  • Found 300 mistakes in the anatomical works of Galen
  • Corrected these mistakes and encouraged doctors to base their work on direct observation
  • Explained Galen's mistakes by pointing out that Galen dissected animals rather than humans
  • Laid the foundation for others to investigate anatomy in more detail
• The Royal Society


  Founded in London in 1660 to discuss new ideas in astronomy, medicine and science
• The Royal Society

  • Was important in the development of new medical ideas because it made it possible for scientists and physicians to study one another's work
  • Had the motto "take nobody's word for it" - it was all about evidence and experiments
  • Sponsored scientists and assisted them with the publication of their ideas in their scientific journal - Philosophical Transactions
  • Received its royal charter and support in 1662
• Continuity from the Middle Ages in Renaissance England

  • Bloodletting
  • Purging
  • Sweating
  • Herbal remedies (now chosen for their colour e.g. red wine for the red rash of smallpox)
  • The practice of regimen sanitatis
  • The removal of bad air
  • Treatment of the sick by apothecaries and surgeons for those who could not afford a physician
  • Women caring for the sick who did not go to hospital
• The treatment of King Charles during his illness clearly shows that medical treatment had barely changed from the medieval period
• The Renaissance is full of ideas, and some small changes to care, but treatment barely changes
• King Charles' treatment

  1. Bleeding

  2. Purging

  3. Placing pigeons on the soles of his feet

  4. Wearing medicine containing the "spirit of human skull"