What was the English Medical Renaissance?

About the lecture

In this module, we consider what the English Medical Renaissance was, in terms of the large-scale changes that occurred in England from 1400-1800, focusing in particular on: (i) the establishment of a sustained movement of people, objects and ideas; (ii) population growth, especially in the urban centres of Europe; (iii) the rise in literacy, and the consequent increase in the number of educated people in England; (iv) the consumer revolution and increased dependency on market relations and specialised labour; and (v) pressure from the state to provide solutions to medical problems.

About the lecturer

Professor Harold Cook is the John F. Nickoll Professor of History at Brown University. His research interest lies in the history of medicine, particularly during the early modern period, and the relationship between commerce, medicine, and science. He has published extensively on early modern medicine, including Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (2007), Trials of an Ordinary Doctor: Joannes Groenevelt in Seventeenth-Century London (1994), and The Decline of the Old Medical Regime in Stuart London (1986). Cook is also co-editor of the journal Medical History>, an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and in 2009 was awarded the Pfizer Prize of the History of Science Society.