Project postdoctoral fellow Dr Jo Edge will give a paper at the Centre for Early Modern Studies' Research Seminar, University of Aberdeen at 13:00 on Wednesday 09 October 2024 (contact them for a link to join online). The paper is titled 'Alice Thornton's Medical World'.
A major theme in Alice Thornton's four Books is health and illness, and her lifespan (1626-1707) is a particularly interesting time in the history of medicine. New theories, such as Paracelsianism, challenged the dominant model of humoral Galenism. However, most people still viewed illness as a disruption to an individual’s unique balance of humours – with nature as mediator between God and man. Thornton is no exception: in her Books, God is always the remote cause of illness and its cure, acting via nature: the non-naturals, states, and humours. This paper will take a cultural-historical approach to Thornton’s medical world and places it in this wider context by examining four interrelated aspects: the cause of illness, disease categories, treatment, and practitioners. It will also introduce the audience to the work-in-progress online edition of Thornton’s Books.