Medieval and Renaissance

• Church


  Had been powerful, but it split in the 1500s and its power declined
• Dissection

  Became more common
• Textbooks


  New forms of Christianity did not value highly decorated churches and books, giving artists time to illustrate in medical textbooks
• Humanism


  1500 and 1600s were a time for new ideas inspired by Humanism, which encouraged new ways to explain the world, moving away from religion
• Sydenham


  Argued for the separate nature of disease
• Causes of disease in Medieval times


  • God as a punishment for sins
  • Theory of the Four Humours
  • Miasma (bad air)
  • Alignment of the planets
  • Witches/Demons
  • Jews (e.g. poisoning wells)
• Causes of disease in Renaissance times


  • God as a punishment for sins only for epidemics
  • Miasma (bad air)
  • Transference - transfer the disease from person to person/objects
  • Four Humours - physicians believe less but public still believe
• Diagnostic methods in Medieval times

  • Urine Charts
  • Star Charts (zodiac)
  • Humours
• Diagnostic methods in Renaissance times


  • Urine Charts
  • Star Charts (zodiac)
  • Humours - less so by doctors e.g. Sydenham
• Treatments in Medieval times

  • Bleeding (through leeches/cutting a vein)
  • Purging (making you be sick)
  • Praying, fasting
  • Herbal remedies
  • Poor/basic surgery
  • Physicians, barber surgeons, apothecaries, women, hospitals in monasteries (care only)
• Treatments in Renaissance times


  • Same as above apart from:
  • Praying mainly during epidemics
  • Herbal remedies with new ingredients from the New World
  • Transference
  • Chemical cures
  • Visit same medical professionals/less hospitals (but better before Dissolution of the Monasteries)/pest houses - plague and pox
• Prevention methods in Medieval times


  • Praying
  • Carrying sweet smelling herbs (miasma)
  • Flagellation (whipping yourself in public to show God you're and to stop sending disease/plague)
  • Hygiene - Regimen Sanitatis
• Prevention methods in Renaissance times


  • Praying during epidemics
  • Carrying sweet smelling herbs (miasma)
  • Burning tar barrels (miasma)
  • Smoking tobacco (miasma)
  • Burning objects that may have had the disease 'transferred' on to it
• Black Death (1348-Medieval)


  • Arrived in Britain in 1348
  • Causes (mainly God, 1345 - irregular alignment of the planets)
  • Treatments (mainly prayed/lanced buboes)
  • Prevention methods (sweet smelling herbs/flagellation)
  • Symptoms - buboes, coughing up blood, aches
• Great Plague (1665-Renaissance)


  • Greatest outbreak in London since the Black Death
  • From a population of 400,000 people, almost 70,000 lost their lives
  • Causes (God/miasma mainly)
  • Treatments (similar to the Black Death & wacky cures e.g. plucked chicken on buboes)
  • Plague Doctors (people tried to make money from miracle cures)
  • Prevention (focus on miasma e.g. burning tar/escaping)
  • More government action shown (closed public spaces/quarantine/the King ordered days of public prayer and fasting)
• Printing Press


  • Spread information quickly and accurately
  • Less control from the Church
  • Accurate drawings of the body shown
• Reformation


  • Less control from the Catholic Church
  • Less people believed in God as a cause of disease
• Royal Society


  • Group of scientists met and discussed new ideas on medicine
  • Supported by King Charles II
  • Published their ideas in a journal
• Andreas Vesalius


  • Highlighted the importance of dissection
  • Corrected Galen over 300 times
  • Accurate drawings of his findings were published
• William Harvey


  • Heart works like a pump, not produced in the liver like Galen stated
  • Blood circulates in a one-way system, not 'burnt up' like Galen said
• Thomas Sydenham


  • Rejected the Four Humours
  • Importance of observation