Book woodcut in “Quinta Essentia”, 1574 by Leonhard Thurneysser detailling the 4 humors and their temperments, sanguine, meloncholy, phlegmatic, and choleric.

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]. 

One of the remedies against the plague found in The Book of Secretes.

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. 

King Clovis I using the Royal Touch to heal scrofula, 15th c.

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.