Author: Dominick Mellusi

Medical Cultures of the Early Modern Spanish Empire by John Slater, Maria Luz Lopez-Terrada, and Jose Pardo Tomas documents the cultural clashes within the Spanish empire and how they changed the developments of medicine over time in a variety of way. “In short, medical cultures provided demographic, analytical, and even geographic tools that constituted a particular kind of map of knowledge and practice, upon which were plotted the local utilities of pharmacological discoveries; cures for social unrest or decline; spaces for political and institutional struggle; and evolving understandings of monstrousness and normativity,” (Page 3). This book discusses how medicine played a crucial role in Spanish imperialism, as much as the spread of religion, politics, and culture. The authors also argue that these things are intertwined within each other.

 

John Slater is a professor at the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University. He has had publications in the American Historical Review and has had chapters published in such books as Science On Stage in Early Modern Spain https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/jslater/. Maria Luz Lopez-Terrada is the Research Director at the Spanish National Research Council and the Institute for the Management and Innovation of Knowledge. She has done research in the history of science and has published work on the history of medicine as recently as 2021 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maria-Lopez-Terrada. Jose Pardo Tomas is a professor at the Universitat de Valencia.. He has published in journals such as the Journal of the History of Collections https://academic.oup.com/jhc/article-abstract/32/2/225/5290466.

 

Chapter 1 tells the stories of people like Augustin de Albarado and his ill health and his efforts to combat it. He took a hallucinogenic herb known as ololiuhqui. Following this, he was tried for the use of hallucinogenic substances as part of witchcraft. This chapter argues that the collision of the Spanish conquerors and the Native New Spaniards created new cultural norms that can be represented in the case study listed previously, as well as many others.

 

Chapter 2 talks about the stories of different medical practices’ communications. The author takes a look at questionnaires delivered to the local population of New Spain and analyzes the answers given. Also examined are the conversations between doctors amongst themselves, as well as lay people. These discussions surrounding illness and death revealed the populations’ cultural views surrounding things such as marriage and drunkenness.

 

Chapter 3 uses symbolic images and relates them to the different studies of medicine. It starts out with the symbol of the dragon and it continues throughout the chapter. It also discusses the inclusion of the Dialogo del Hierro and how it establishes alchemy as a key context to read publications in the Historia Medicinal.

 

Chapter 4 specifically looks at mailing correspondence between different individuals regarding family, religion, and expertise. The letters discuss different subjects such as food, illness, travel, and the scarcity of physicians. This author argues that the medical culture within New Spain was a result of complex processes brought about by different negotiations.

 

Chapter 5 deals with two previously unexamined documents related to someone who spread a genetic disease through the Canary Islands in the 16^th century and it deals with the implications of these documents. It dives into the cultural representation of hairy peoples through mythology and popular depiction. The author contends that these two documents paint a sharper picture if one considers them within the context of broader anthropological literature.

 

Chapter 6 takes the correspondence between two individuals, Juan Paez de Castro and Jeronimo Zurita to show the concern that Spain had for Italy’s changing cultural and political-religious chages and the ways this influenced intellectual life in the Iberian Peninsula.

 

Chapter 7 deals with medical practitioners such as midwives and birth attendants and their symbolic relationship to the Baroque decline. It focuses on Baroque writers and their depictions of childbirth, such as their focus on creation and creator rather than the actual action of giving birth.

 

Chapter 8 has to do with the portrayal of illness in drama on stage. Some of these illnesses include memory loss and French Pox. It not only covers the knowledge of these illnesses, but it also depicts people’s general reactions to these illnesses. The author argues that the depiction of illnesses does seem to correspond with that of Galenic medicine.

 

Chapter 9 covers astrological medicine and its relationship with theater. The author seems to think that the depiction of astrological medicine in plays as an alternative mode of medical practice made it perceived in real life that it was more controversial and it also made the practice more available to theological polemics about astrology.

 

Chapter 10 talks about chymical medicine and its relationship and interactions related to political power, religion, and drama. The author argues that “the language of chymestry had a theatrical dimension that resonated with contemporaneous theology” (Page 215) that allowed priests and friars a much more involved role in the medical process.

 

The authors use a variety of sources, including primary documents and historiographical monographs related to the subject. One author explains some of the problems with their sources as they used inquisitional reports. These are not always reliable since they are used at a time of great social coercion. This creates a sense of untrustworthiness. The authors’ honesty about their methods is appreciated for the reader. Another author describes their particular use of letters and correspondence as a way of revealing the medical cultures. I believe all of these approaches have merits and downfalls, and a good amount of time is taken in this book to discuss them.

 

The authors are successful in their pursuit of highlighting how medical practices interacted and influenced cultural dynamics. Whether it is with hairy men and their depictions in mythology or letter correspondence between two practitioners and development of intellectual culture in Italy, the authors are able to draw, more or less, straight lines between the these two aspects of life. However, the book is a bit scattered. The subjects and scopes of each chapter is quite different. This, perhaps, is due to their being multiple authors with different areas of focus and expertise. This could also be seen as appropriate considering they are attempting to depict culture on a transatlantic scale. A seriously bold feat.

 

Overall, Medical Cultures of the Early Modern Spanish Empire is an interesting read for those who are interested in the history of science, methodology, and cultural history. It does not come across as a popular history and its eclectic yet niche subject matter might find keeping lay readers’ attention difficult. Although suggesting just one chapter to someone interested in a particular topic may not be out of the question.

The Enlightenment of Cadawallader Colden: Empire, Science, and Intellectual Culture in British New York by John M. Dixon is a history of the American Enlightenment from the perspective of one man that is not usually focused on. When most people think of this time period they think of George Washington, Thomas Paine, etc. but Colden’s point of view is very unique take, but as Dixon tries to show, not an unimportant one.

John M. Dixon is an associate professor at the College of Staten Island in the City University of New York. He does work on intellectual history, the Enlightenment, and cultural history. He received his PhD in American history from the University of California in 2007, his M.A. from the University of East Anglia, and his B.A. from the University of Birmingham. He has had works published by Oxford, Cornell, William and Mary Quarterly, and Early American Studies. “His current research explores the history of the early modern Atlantic world through the experience of Jews, crypto-Jews, and conversos.” https://www.csi.cuny.edu/campus-directory/john-m-dixon

Chapter 1 starts the book out with the intellectual backdrop of the Enlightenment. This context better allows us to understand the world that Cadwallader Colden lived in. It describes how the intellectual traditions started to move away from Aristotelian thinking from the re-introduction of the pre-Socratic schools of thought such as the Hermetic, Platonic, and Stoic philosophies. It describes the changing intellectual climate following the Glorious Revolution. It concludes with information about Colden’s parents and early life.

Chapter 2 documents Colden’s medical education and his travels between Europe and America, including places like Philadelphia. It also documents the debates surrounding inoculation at the time. There were also many other medical debates happening at the time between different schools of medical thought. Colden was kept informed of all of these developments and ventured to development an impressive network of medical physicians.

Chapter 3 chronicles Colden’s continuing efforts to grow his network and the beginnings of his political career after his medical practices did not come to fruition. It also mentions that he still had an interest in the medical world, as it documents some experiments he did, including one with a bladder.

Chapter 4 shows Colden’s moving away from medical practices to his focus on economics, geography, and history of North America. It tells the story of how he governed and the troubles he ran into given the New York government’s many cases of corruption. It also describes Colden’s diplomacy with the local Native American populations and his writings on them.

Chapter 5 talks about how Colden moved to a rural farm that was representative of a quiet philosophical retirement advocated by the neo-stoics. It describes the friendship that formed between Franklin and Colden and how it furthered their intellectual developments.

Chapter 6 highlights Colden’s battles with Berkleyan philosophy and the different intellectuals who took each side. It talks about the many books Colden published in this debate, including his self-regarded masterpiece Explication.

Chapter 7 describes the politics of eighteenth century New York and Colden’s fights against partisanship. It focuses on what the author refers to as print culture.

Chapter 8 documents the entrance of a second generation in Enlightenment thinking and Colden’s time as head of the government. They represented a new cultural change and print culture that created the intellectual scene until Colden’s death in 1776 on the eve of the American Revolution.

Unlike books we have read previously in recent weeks, this book does not attempt to cover two hundred or three hundred years between its pages. Instead, it documents the life of one man who’s intellectual explorations made a difference in New York. It chronicles his life and political ambitions in a way that reveals the intellectual culture of New York at the time.

The sources Dixon used seem to be well targeted and focused. He spent most of his time discussing just one city and the time period spanned only a few decades. Far less ambitious that some of the books we have read previously. And this is suitable given the length of this monograph. As any good intellectual ought to do, he cites the intellectual works of each thinker he talks about in the book directly. He spends a good amount of time explaining the arguments of each side if there happened to be a debate.  Towards the end of the book he cites pamphlets that were published to illustrate the nature of printing culture and the political climate that existed. He also cites letter correspondents and other primary sources of that nature. There were other times where he cited secondary sources and made sure to explicitly state the names of the historians he was citing. He incorporated their arguments into his research and showed where his work fit into all of this. The only downside when it comes to sources is that the author never stated their limitations in their research. Where were the shortcomings of writing this book and what could it be missing?

I believe this book could be categorized as a history of science, political history, and an intellectual history. From my reading this book focuses the most on politics more so than any other book we have read in class so far. So, I think the intended audience would be intended for people who are interested in these two subjects or anyone who is interested in the history of New York and the Enlightenment.

Colden is an interesting figure as the author argues, because unlike other Scottish thinkers of the Enlightenment he did not believe that things were automatically getting better. Instead, he had a bit of cynicism in his thinking and warned of continuing corruption that he saw occurring in several governments.

I believe that the author was aiming for the reader and other historians to have a reconsideration about the American Enlightenment its relationship with Cadawallader Colden. He is not a very well known figure, let alone is he considered an important part of the Enlightenment. However, Dixon desires to push back against that. He certainly does do a formidable job. He successfully showed that Colden’s intellectual and political influence certainly had an effect on others. The phenomena of print culture is certainly one example. Dixon closes out the book with one of his arguments, “Colden was an important champion of colonial intellect who helped to define the social and ideological contours of moderate, transatlantic enlightenment.” (Page 167)

 

One question I would have for the class would be similar to what we ask about the Scientific Revolution. Was there an Enlightenment? I have heard it said that instead of there being an Enlightenment, that there were multiple Enlightenments. What does Colden’s story add to this and the Scientific Revolution?

Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800 by Margaret E. Schotte is a piece of history that documents the methodological tools of sea navigation during the mid sixteenth century until the beginnings of the nineteenth century. The book touches on several different events that triggered a stark development that occurred during this time in this profession. Some of these include the development of the printing press, the development of the nautical expert, and the development of different nautical theories that saw the subsequent battle between sailors that believed in learning to sail from books in classrooms and those that believed in learning from hands on experience. She touches on print culture, the scientific revolution, and the histories of six different countries. I believe this to be a good contribution to the history of science and historical intellectual and methodological thought.

Margaret Schotte is an associate history professor at York University. She received her BA from Harvard University, her MA from the University of Toronto, and she has an MA and PhD in history from Princeton University. Her research interests include early modern science, book history, maritime history, and digital humanities. She has been published in a variety of journals, some ranging from intellectual history to cultural history, and she has had two book chapters published. Sailing School is her first published monograph and she is currently working on a project related to Sailing with the French: Labour, Trade, and Mobility in the Indian Ocean World. Sailing School has received the 2019 John Lyman Book Award from the North American Society for Oceanic History, the 2020 Leo Gershoy Award from the American Historical Association, and the 2021 LA&PS Dean’s Award for Distinction in Research https://profiles.laps.yorku.ca/profiles/mschotte/.

Chapter 1 of Sailing School starts the book by examining Amsterdam’s harbor in the seventeenth century. It goes over how new methods of teaching nautical skills were developing. With the invention of the printing press, teaching navigation by memory and hands on training was starting to be challenged by purely learning by theory in a classroom. Textbooks started to be developed bt teachers to illustrate their expertise. This chapter highlights the different areas of focus that different teachers would have, whether that be spending more time on astronomy, mathematics, or how to calculate tides.

Chapter 2 focused in on the mathematics of navigation and what was taught and who taught them. Navigators needed to be absolutely proficient in math and the next major development of calculating ship positions was trigonometry and logarithms. These mathematical tools helped sailors determine where their ships were in relation to other land masses. Some of the teachers of these techniques that are pointed out by Schotte include Denys, Dieppe, and Jean-Francois Doublet. Towards the end of the chapter the book documents how legislation stepped in to solidify the transition into theoretical classroom-based learning by requiring future navigators to take classes.

Chapter 3 turns to the state of naval navigation training in England. It explains how students were required to answer questions that were on the one hand theoretical, and other sets of questions that were very hands on. They would all have to face a panel of nautical experts before they could get their credentials. The chapter runs through a series of anecdotes of different experiences of young aspiring navigators and highlights the deficiencies and advantages of different curricula. It finally argues that it was the development of in classroom hands on learning that created a new space for developing mathematical minds.

Chapter 4 continues the ongoing debates of the optimum use of theory it nautical navigation training. It takes a look at different Dutch textbooks and curricula, comparing and contrasting them and their developments. It documents the classrooms that were contained by the small private schools that were used to educate these students. It outlines how they would use realistic word problems to improve their trigonometry skills and how teachers incorporated old, as well as new methods of teaching. It goes over the role that exams played in proving to the teachers that the students knew how to manage daily calculation problems.

Chapter 5 shows just how much of the nautical profession changed over the course of the eighteenth century. “Over the course of the eighteenth century a great deal had changed for sailors, including new instruments, revised techniques for solving classic problems, and updated institutions and forms of certification,” (Page 152). There were a variety of changes due to the changing political landscape of Europe at the time. Some of these involved the French and American revolutions, respectively.

 

Margaret Schotte’s pros are easily understandable, and her arguments appear to be quite clear. This does not seem to be a popular history, as I do not believe most average readers are interested in 18^th century nautical history, however I could be mistaken. It seems that the audience is primarily for academics and historians interested in the history of thought and science. Schotte provides a robust understanding of the scientific developments at hand and lays them out in a way that is chronological and she provides anecdotes that detail the developments in a concrete way. She does a good job of documenting her sources throughout the book. Between her paragraphs of in-depth explanation, she provides images of textbooks and nautical sources. These may be in different languages than she is speaking in but they provide good accompaniments to her commentary. She provides the mathematical formulas used first hand by the students and teachers of sailing.

 

Overall, Sailing School can be classified as a history of science book. I would argue that it certainly has social, cultural, and political elements, but it is primarily a history of methodological progress. It documents the processes of learning and what it meant to be a navigational sailor and the other subjects are backdrops to these developments. It talks about the development of the role of mathematics, the evolution of the textbook, and the role of hands-on versus theoretical learning. I think it could also be argued that it may be an intellectual history, albeit in the pursuit of scientific progress. Sailing School is a solid contribution to the history of scientific development in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Sentimental Savants: Philosophical Families in Enlightenment France by Meghan K. Roberts is an interesting new take on the individuals who participated in the Scientific Revolution during the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Meghan K. Roberts is an associate professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. She has a Bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary, a Master’s degree from Northwestern University, and she earned her PhD from Northwestern University in 2011. She is currently teaching courses on Culture Wars in the Age of Enlightenment and Sex, Scandal, and Celebrity in Early Modern Europe. She has several journal articles published on different major philosophers during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. She is currently writing a book on media, masculinity, and medicine (http://www.meghankroberts.com/, https://www.bowdoin.edu/profiles/faculty/mroberts/).

 

Meghan Roberts in Sentimental Savants aims to show how the family as an institution played a vital role in the Scientific Revolution in developing their public image and discovery and dissemination of new knowledge. This is an especially interesting contribution to the scholarship because the academic community and general public both perceive the “Age of Reason” as being a time of unique thought. Emotional consideration and appeals to authority have been finally gotten rid of and logic and reason have prevailed. Roberts pushes back against this by using sources such as eulogies and biographical compendiums. She documents the debates philosophers were having with regard to whether they should have families or remain celibate, and the author connects the consequences of their conclusions to other issues such as inoculation.

 

The book is organized in a way that is easy to follow and the sort of materials it contends with are directly relatable to subjects that the average lay reader can sympathize with, such as love, family, friendship, and emotional health. For this reason, the audience of this book can be a popular audience, not just academic. In Chapter 1 she documents how Men of Letters were moving into a new era of thinking about family life and love. Instead of thinking of that aspect of life as being a distraction from their work, as had previous generations of philosophers, they now believed that they could be both men of letters and men of emotions. They also believed it was important for them to practice what they preached by living a virtuous family life. Chapter 2 talks about the role that their family members played in adding to their intellectual work. Roberts documents how oftentimes wives would act as research assistants and how when a philosopher lived a good family life this reflected well on their reputations.

 

Chapter 3 built upon the different lifestyles these thinkers chose and how they related to the public debates surrounding public health evolved. The author specifically engages with the questions surrounding inoculation against diseases like smallpox. She explains how one philosopher used emotional logic to convince the public of his point of view surrounding inoculation. “La Condamine manipulated cultural trends, most especially sentimentalism, as a way to bolster the public appeal of inoculation. He used the language of feeling to mediate between the public and medical community. She also talks about the concept of “enlightened love” which is “the complex blend of reason and sentiment that characterized the French Enlightenment.” Chapter 4 expands into the realm of children and the roles that philosophers played as parents. This allowed them to engage in “intimate empiricism“ to test certain ideas of the Enlightenment and garner further positive reputations with the general public. Chapter 5 uses the case study of Antoine Lavoistier to demonstrate the principles of sentimental paternalism and agricultural reform.

 

I believe that Meghan Roberts succeeds in what she set out to do. She utilizes her sources well and her analysis of different thinkers and their circumstances stand out in a way that is easy to picture. She states, “I argue that a new intellectual ideal emerged in the eighteenth century. Bachelorhood (if not necessarily celibacy) continued to appeal, but family life also beckoned. How lovely it would be, thought some philosophers, to have a devoted wife and affectionate children.” She demonstrates her arguments through the utilization of secondary sources, but mostly through the correspondence of her sentimental savants to show what was going on in their heads and their personal lives. She uses several different example philosophers and their families  to show that this new image of what it meant to be a man of letters meant. The only critique one could have that other historians seem to do, is she never outlines the limitations of her sources. Presumably, there is only so much that correspondence can depict, and one would imagine that many letters have been lost to the void of time. Having methodological humility is important in scholarship. This is especially important when presenting new research in a monograph. This is especially true when the author is making such claims as are being made in this piece. However, Roberts does do a good job of illustrating where in the historiography her research fits in. This gives a good landscape of how the discipline has been approaching these issues in the past, and it develops a helpful framework that enables academics and lay people alike to get their bearings as they enter into the pages of research that she has put together.

 

Overall, Sentimental Savants serves as a fascinating contribution to the history of science and history of emotions.  It reveals how scientists and critical thinkers of the time were not so cold and detached as many of us may seem to think. Indeed, for these figures, emotions did not need to be a hindrance and close connections were not just distractions. In her Conclusion, Roberts states, “The stoic, unmarried philosopher remained a powerful ideal during and long after the Enlightenment, but married men of letters discovered they had a bag of tricks unavailable to the unattached…Married men of letters drew attention to their loving families as proof that they were men of virtue more than qualified to make themselves useful to the public, to stand as role models as well as men of learning.”

Poison Trials: Wonder Drugs, Experiment, and the Battle for Authority in Renaissance Science by Alisha Rankin documents the role that poison, antidotes, and trials that demonstrated their efficacy had on the political, social, and cultural dynamics in certain societies. This book presents a clear depiction of how the poison trials within a specific context of cultural and social values created the room for later experimental methods. Rankin holds a PhD in the history of science from Harvard University and currently teaches at Tufts University. In 2014 she received the Gerald Strauss Prize for her book Panaceia’s Daughters: Noblewomen as Healers in Early Modern Germany. She is also the co-editor of the book Secrets and Knowledge in Medicine and Science, 1500-1800 and her research interests include the history of early modern Europe, science, sexuality, and women.

The organization and subjects of the book shows a targeted interest to historians already interested in subjects such as hierarchies within the fields of social and cultural history, while the use of anecdotes can give an appeal to a lay audience interested in the time period. While the author primarily focuses her story on European men in the book, she also acknowledges that women and minorities were adversely affected by being closely associated with poison/poisoning, while there was little evidence that they were disproportionately involved. She mostly focuses her attention on western Europe and Europeans.

The author attempts to make several arguments in the book about the role of poison in the eventual development of experimentation in early modern Europe. She argues that scientists needed to necessarily refine their methods in the process of these trials and tackle the symbolic question of what it means to engage in human experimentation. They did this in contrast to the open marketplace poison demonstrations being performed by the less qualified empirical practitioners. Although she points out in Chapter 3 that even though scientists such as Mattioli warned of the practice of charlatans, many of those in power thought their self-administering of poison as being worthy enough to warrant a license to further their practices. As long as they could take poison and their antidote and live they could keep working. Further, these comparisons show that the eventual development of experimentation was interwoven with cultural elements. This is why this book should be targeted to cultural historians primarily. Prominent cultural historian Sidney Mintz put in his Sweetness and Power that “Culture must be understood ‘not simply as a product but also as production, not simply as socially constituted but also socially constituting.” It was not just the testing of antidotes but also the development of methods.

A strength for this monograph is that all arguments are addressed in detail using reliable methods. In one instance the author points out that in the book Theriac to Piso Galen shows that the focus was not necessarily on developing an antidote per se, but how to refine methods. He offers the use of animals in experimentation as an imperfect alternative. “At the same time, Theriac to Piso emphasized that theriac had been created not by blindly observing these sorts of tests, but through physicians’ careful reasoning.” (Page 28) Scientists following the legacy of Theriac to Piso refined their methods by offering different instructions to readers and testing on everything from cheese to pheasents.

For Rankin, justification for the poison trials were largely along social and cultural lines. She states, “The various attempts to make poison trials appear more acceptable, I argue, derive from two main problems: the interruption to the ingrained cultural and religious ritual of public execution, and the fear that princes and physicians might be viewed as poisoners.” (Page 115) It is repeated throughout the book that justification for the trials relied on them being perceived as consensual on the part of the prisoner and for the public good. Towards the end of Chapter 4 she shows how the German bureaucracy had to directly confront the question of using human subjects in the Tumler case and all the problems that lay in potentially violating their religious and cultural values. Also, in Chapter 3 Rankin highlights the comparison between those who tried to portray themselves as doing legitimate science in contrast to the empirical practitioners. They did this by developing models of procedures that made their practices legitimate in the eyes of potential critics.

This work also shows elements of influence from philosopher, Michel Foucault, with Rankin’s examination and emphasis on the Pope Clements’ reference to the convicted criminal test subjects as “bodies”, rather than human beings. Foucault does something similar in his Discipline and Punish as he examines the history of the prison. Edward Baptist also does this in his The Half Has Never Been Told when he tells the story of American slavery. He and Rankin cite Foucault directly.

This monograph is also careful to point out the gaps in historical evidence and is unafraid to point to where her research is not entirely confirmed. For instance, towards the end of Chapter 2 in the section “Oleum Clementis” it is written that there is serious doubt as to whether some of the products being tested were the same in different trials, or just similar, or entirely different. It is important for social scientists to point out what is not confirmed in order to take caveats into consideration and possibly open the door for further research. Another potential gap in this book that is not pointed out is the point of view of average citizens and their thoughts on these poison trials. Rankin outlines the points of view of aristocrats and popes, and even of a prisoner in Chapter 4, but we never see the perspective of the average citizen. This seems important because of Rankins claim that those in power needed these trials to be seen as legitimate by the public.

Overall, Poison Trials presents as a careful and thorough account of the role that experimenting with poison played in the development of experimenting methodology itself. Rankin has clear arguments that she addresses throughout the book, and does a good job pointing out where there are gaps in research. One can see how this project can lead to further scholarly endeavors.