The medical practices of British exiles and travellers in Europe, c. 1615-1700

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project will examine the medical practices of five figures who were in Europe as exiles or travellers between 1615and 1700: Kenelm Digby, Robert Boyle, John Evelyn, William Cavendish, and Martin Lister. Seeking to move beyondgendered dichotomies in the history of medicine between domestic, feminine practice, and the professional activities ofmale practitioners, it will apply ethnographic and material culture approaches to a wide range of sources such ascorrespondence, diaries, and notebooks, in order to reconstruct the medical worlds traversed and inhabited by theseprominent men. The research will ask how these individuals navigated the medical landscape in unfamiliar territory, andwill analyse the dynamics of their encounters with medical practitioners, products, and knowledge. By deploying thesetools, usually the preserve of social histories of lay medicine, to study individuals who have been regarded as innovatorsor significant patrons in the scientific culture of the seventeenth century, a re-examination of the boundaries betweendomestic and public practice will be made possible. The context of spatial displacement and travel will enable a uniquelytransnational history of medical practice, allowing for exploration of the circulation of products and knowledge betweenindividuals and societies, and the social, cultural and political mechanisms which aided or hindered this.