1st Edition
Rhetoric and Medicine in Early Modern Europe
Through close analysis of texts, cultural and civic communities, and intellectual history, the papers in this collection, for the first time, propose a dynamic relationship between rhetoric and medicine as discourses and disciplines of cure in early modern Europe. Although the range of theoretical approaches and methodologies represented here is diverse, the essays collectively explore the theories and practices, innovations and interventions, that underwrite the shared concerns of medicine, moral philosophy, and rhetoric: care and consolation, reading, policy, and rectitude, signinference, selfhood, and autonomy-all developed and refined at the intersection of areas of inquiry usually thought distinct. From Italy to England, from the sixteenth through to the mid-eighteenth century, early modern moral philosophers and essayists, rhetoricians and physicians investigated the passions and persuasion, vulnerability and volubility, theoretical intervention and practical therapy in the dramas, narratives, and disciplines of public and private cure. The essays are relevant to a wide range of readers, including cultural, literary, and intellectual historians, historians of medicine and philosophy, and scholars of rhetoric.
Biography
Stephen Pender is associate professor of English at the University of Windsor, Canada. Nancy S. Struever is professor emerita of history at Johns Hopkins University, USA.
'The book is an excellent source, rich in its inclusion of references - and would be quite useful to those scholars who require a specialist treatment of medicine and rhetoric and philosophy of medicine during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe.' Seventeenth-Century News 'This is a thought-provoking collection, including some excellent essays, which explores the relations between medicine and rhetoric from many different points of view and in relation to a range of different types of subject-matter. ... It shows how rhetorical knowledge can enhance our understanding of early modern medical and health-related works and it offers engaging readings of some very interesting little-known texts.' Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric '... at a time of relative flux in the history of medicine, these explorations of intersections between rhetoric and mediccine in early modern Europe represent a change of focus to the broader dimensions of the cultural and literary practices of medicine. For those who find this change of focus promising, this book provides valuable resources (including an interesting bibliography of primary and secondary sources.' Metascience Online 'This is a rich and provocative collection that probes its subject from a variety of angles. Historians of medicine will gain most from the contributions by Giglioni, Carlino, and Moss, and should find themselves generally agreeing with Solomon’s argument. ... an enjoyable and stimulating collection.' Bulletin of the History of Medicine 'This is a fascinating and technical study of rhetoric and medicine during this period, and emphasises its interdisciplinary focus across a range of different contexts ... [the anthology] is essential to early Modern scholars with an interest in the symbiosis between rhetoric and medicine.' British Society for Literature and Science
