Description:

SUMMARY: This collection, by an international team of scholars, presents exciting examples of research currently being undertaken on early modern Italy which question the conventional boundaries of medical history. It brings together historians of medicine and scholars of different backgrounds who are re-visiting the field with new questions and unexplored sources. By exploring crucial areas of intersection between the territory of medicine and that of law, politics, religion, art and material culture, their work highlights the connections between these apparently separate fields and challenges our understanding of what we regard as medical activities, medical identities, spaces and objects. Chapters in this volume address the study of medical careers, medical identities and spaces where medical activities were performed (the apothecary's shop, the courtroom, the convent, the museum) in innovative ways, while their methodological contribution transcends geographical and chronological boundaries.