POETRY, PHYSICK, PESTILENCE AND POX : MEDICAL IDEAS IN ENGLISH POETRY TO THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

John Riddington Young

ISBN 10: 3639179161 / ISBN 13: 9783639179163

Editore: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009

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nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - The terrible contagious disease, syphilis, which ravaged Europe in the 16th century takes its name from a hapless shepherd boy called Syphilus in a poem written by a doctor. Hitherto, it had been known as the French Disease. Medical References in Poetry furnish us with an insight of what the layman rather than the physician believed about contemporary ideas on anatomy, physiology and therapeutics. Whilst looking at these medical allusions, one can clearly see the revolutionary changes which were taking place in medicine between 1400 and 1700. The implicit faith in the unproven, ancient theories of Hippocrates and Galen can certainly be felt in the verses of Chaucer and his contemporaries. By the seventeenth century, however, that assurance has gone and poets appear extremely sceptical about the theory of humours and also medical astrology, once the two cornerstones of mediaeval medicine. Poetry gives us a clear view of popular ideas about the human body and its relationship to the rest of the universe. This book should be of equal value to both the historian of medicine and to all those with an interest in English poetry.

Codice articolo 9783639179163

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: POETRY, PHYSICK, PESTILENCE AND POX : MEDICAL IDEAS IN ENGLISH POETRY TO THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
• Editore: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller
• Data di pubblicazione: 2009
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 3639179161
• ISBN 13: 9783639179163
• Rilegatura: Taschenbuch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 220 L x 150 A x 11 P (millimetri) 220 millimetri di larghezza per 150 millimetri di altezza per 11 millimetri di profondità
• Peso: 314 grammi

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Riassunto

The terrible contagious disease, syphilis, which ravaged Europe in the 16th century takes its name from a hapless shepherd boy called Syphilus in a poem written by a doctor. Hitherto, it had been known as the French Disease. Medical References in Poetry furnish us with an insight of what the layman rather than the physician believed about contemporary ideas on anatomy, physiology and therapeutics. Whilst looking at these medical allusions, one can clearly see the revolutionary changes which were taking place in medicine between 1400 and 1700. The implicit faith in the unproven, ancient theories of Hippocrates and Galen can certainly be felt in the verses of Chaucer and his contemporaries. By the seventeenth century, however, that assurance has gone and poets appear extremely sceptical about the theory of humours and also medical astrology, once the two cornerstones of mediaeval medicine. Poetry gives us a clear view of popular ideas about the human body and its relationship to the rest of the universe. This book should be of equal value to both the historian of medicine and to all those with an interest in English poetry.

L'autore

Senior Consultant Surgeon at the North Devon District Hospital, he has written six other books and was once a Colonel in the Army. He lists his hobbies as long distance walking, fishing, shooting, making stained-glass windows, woodcarving, Punch and Judy, growing prize-winning Sweet Peas, British Bulldogs and Arabic/Farsi calligraphy.