EXHIBITS
The Book of Secretes: Secretes of Medicine and Healing
Secretes of Medicine and Healing
Medicine in the Renaissance
Renaissance era medicine was influenced greatly by the humanistic studies happening at the time. Scholars were studying the Galenic medicine practices of the medieval ages and developing new healing remedies. An excitement in the study of anatomy brought about a better development of doctors in the universities. Hospitals were built, patroned by wealthy nobles. This did not mean that household medicine was not still heavily used. Though a shift in household medicine to institutionalized medicine was occurring, the Book of Secretes included many medicinal remedies for use in the common household. The Black Death that struck Europe in the 14th century also greatly influenced Renaissance medicine and healing. In the Book of Secretes, 24 different plague remedies are demonstrated, more than any other single illness. The book also contained many useful remedies for common illness such as cough, King’s Evil (scrofula), and common wounds.
Galenic Medicine
During the Medieval and Renaissance Eras, humourism was a widely believed theory in medicine. It affected how medicine was studied and practiced throughout centuries. Originally put forth by the Egyptians, humourism was reviewed and adopted by the Greek, Roman and European scholars of the day as an explication of the health of the human body. Scholars of the time believed that the human body contained four main humours, being blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm [1]. It was believed that a deficiency or excess in any of these four humours or substances was what led to disease and illness. Not only were humours connected to health and medicine, but also to personality. While black bile was connected to meloncholy, the other personalities that arose connected to the humours were sanguine, choleric, and phlegmatic due to excess in blood, yellow bile, and phlegm respectively [2]. Using certain herbal substances, the deficiencies and excess in the humours could be balanced, therefore resulting in good health.
Monasteries led the medical research and practice in the Medieval and Early Renaissance, and the monks within them believed in the Doctrine of Signiture. This meant that God had provided a remedy in nature for every disease that could be connected through symbolism. In the Book of Secretes studied, the translator mentions in his epistle that God created nature and its secrets for the use of man and named him "Lord of the Earth" [3]. For example, to treat a headache, some seeds that looked like miniture skulls, called skullcap, were used.
In the Secretes of the Reverende Mayster Alexis of Piemont, humours are only vaguely referenced, as it is not an explication of medical theory, but simply a recipe book for common remedies used for varying illness. In a few remedies in the book it mentions simply "a potion for which dryeth away evil humours" [4].
Plague
How did the breakout of the plague influence the development of medical thought and practice during the Reniassance Era?
During the 14th century, Europe was consumed by the Black Plague. The epidemic began in Asia and swept west into Western and Mediterrean Europe, most likely carried by Italian merchants who left fighting in Crimea. Bubonic plague, the most common form, is characterized by very high fever, chills, prostration, delirium, hemorrhaging of the small capillaries under the skin, and enlarged, painful lymph nodes, which suppurate and may discharge [5]. This epidemic swept through Europe, killing roughly half of Europe's population in the four years from 1347 to 1350 [6]. Many scholars have argued that one of the effects of the Black Plague epidemic that struck Europe was a new focus on medicine and remedies. The Secretes of the Reverende Mayster Alexis of Piemont contains nearly 40 pages of medicinal remedies, of which there are 6 pages full of plague remedies, more than for any other single illness [7]. The plague affected nearly every aspect of life during the Medieval and Renaissance eras and left a fear of death that hung over the Renaissance era, resulting in new medicinal practices that sprang up through humanism, universities, and the development of mankind.
Scrofula & the Royal Touch
Scrofula was an infection of the lymph nodes known in modern medicine as tubercular adentis. It resulted in painful and disfiguring abscesses and suppurations on the face and neck. During the Medieval and Renaissance eras, it was known as Kings Evil. It is refered as such because of the belief that the "Royal Touch" could heal the disfiguring disease. It is referred to as the Kings Evil because "evil" meant disease or illness at the time. The Royal Touch came into practice during the 11th century and was widely used during the reign of King Charles II. The king had to go through a purifying process of going through communion and hearing a sermon before the ceremony in order to heal for God [8]. It is interesting to note that as the Royal Touch was the best known cure for Kings Evil, there are remedies for it within Ruscelli's book of secrets. Healers at the time would make remedies to treat the symptoms of scrofula as well as try to get the Kings help, but as it was very difficult to receive the Royal Touch, many remedies became developed in order to help the afflicted people.
A very good and easy remedy, agaynst the disease called kynges euyill [9]
Take the herbe called Farfara, sole foot in Englithe, well stamped with his rootes, and beynge myngled with the flower of the seede of Lime or flaxe, and the grease of Barrowe make therof a plasster, and lay it vpon the sore, channgyng it twyse a day and to geve the pacient drynke therof in the mornynge, before his breakfast, and at night before he go to bedde. Contynuynge this same, you shall make hym whole and sounde.
Works Cited
[1] Lawrence M. Principe, The Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, p 33.
[2] Principe, The Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, 33.
[3] Girolamo Ruscelli, The Secretes of the Reverende Mayster Alexis of Piemount. (London: Henry Sutton, 1559). This copy held at Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library Department of Special Collections and Archives. Shelfmark COLL V GR.6 (hereafter referred to as Ruscelli, Book of Secretes, USU SCA)
[4] Ruscelli, Book of Secretes, USU SCA
[5] "Plague." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (March 2017): 1. Literary Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed November 28, 2017).
[6] Principe, The Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, 8.
[7] Ruscelli, Book of Secretes, USU SCA
[8] Stephen Brogan, 2016. "A Touch of Charles II." History Today 66, no. 5: 48-54. Humanities International Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 28, 2017).
[9] Ruscelli, Book of Secretes, USU SCA