Books by Alisha Rankin
Panaceia’s Daughters provides the first book-length study of noblewomen’s healing activities in e... more Panaceia’s Daughters provides the first book-length study of noblewomen’s healing activities in early modern Europe. Drawing on rich archival sources, Alisha Rankin demonstrates that numerous German noblewomen were deeply involved in making medicines and recommending them to patients, and many gained widespread fame for their remedies. Turning a common historical argument on its head, Rankin maintains that noblewomen’s pharmacy came to prominence not in spite of their gender but because of it.
Rankin demonstrates the ways in which noblewomen’s pharmacy was bound up in notions of charity, class, religion, and household roles, as well as in expanding networks of knowledge and early forms of scientific experimentation. The opening chapters place noblewomen’s healing within the context of cultural exchange, experiential knowledge, and the widespread search for medicinal recipes in early modern Europe. Case studies of renowned healers Dorothea of Mansfeld and Anna of Saxony then demonstrate the value their pharmacy held in their respective roles as elderly widow and royal consort, while a study of the long-suffering Duchess Elisabeth of Rochlitz emphasizes the importance of experiential knowledge and medicinal remedies to the patient’s experience of illness.
Contents:
Introduction: Secrets and Knowledge, Elaine Leong and Alisha Rankin
Part I Defining... more Contents:
Introduction: Secrets and Knowledge, Elaine Leong and Alisha Rankin
Part I Defining Secrets:
How to read a book of secrets, William Eamon;
What is a secret? Secrets and craft knowledge in early modern Europe, Pamela H. Smith.
Part II Secrecy and Openness:
The secrets of Sir Hugh Platt, Ayesha Mukherjee;
Robert Boyle and secrecy, Michael Hunter;
Openness vs. secrecy in the Hartlib circle: revisiting 'democratic Baconism' in Interregnum England, Michelle DiMeo.
Part III Illicit Secrets:
Anna Zieglerin's alchemical revelations, Tara Nummedal;
Face waters, oils, love magic and poison: making and selling secrets in early modern Rome, Tessa Storey.
Part IV Secrets and Health:
Keeping beauty secrets in early modern Iberia, Montserrat Cabré;
Secrets to healthy living: the revival of the preventive paradigm in late Renaissance Italy, Sandro Cavallo;
Secrets of place: the medical casebooks of Vivant-Augustin Ganiare, Lisa Wynne Smith
***
Secrets played a central role in transformations in medical and scientific knowledge in early modern Europe. As a new fascination with novelty began to take hold from the late fifteenth century, Europeans thirsted for previously unknown details about the natural world: new plants, animals, and other objects from nature, new recipes for medical and alchemical procedures, new knowledge about the human body, and new facts about the way nature worked. These 'secrets' became popular items of commerce and trade, as the quest for new and exclusive bits of information met the vibrant early modern marketplace. Whether disclosed widely in print or kept more circumspect in manuscripts, secrets helped drive an expanding interest in acquiring knowledge throughout early modern Europe.
Bringing together international scholars, this volume provides a pan-European and interdisciplinary overview on the topic. Each essay offers significant new interpretations of the role played by secrets in their area of specialization. Chapters address key themes in early modern history and the history of medicine, science and technology including: the possession, circulation and exchange of secret knowledge across Europe; alchemical secrets and laboratory processes; patronage and the upper-class market for secrets; medical secrets and the emerging market for proprietary medicines; secrets and cosmetics; secrets and the body and finally gender and secrets.
Papers by Alisha Rankin
Early Science and Medicine, 2009
is essay examines the conflicting approaches towards marvelous cures in sixteenthcentury Germany... more is essay examines the conflicting approaches towards marvelous cures in sixteenthcentury Germany. As pharmaceutical substances flooded in from both east and west, they brought with them a market for "wonder drugs" that would cure any ailment. In this climate, university-trained physicians felt threatened by the rising popularity of cures hawked by empirical practitioners, while at the same time endorsing certain wonder drugs. Using the example of one particularly controversial empiric, Georg am Wald, and his wonder drug, the Panacea Amwaldina, this article parses the various factors that made the medical elite embrace certain cures while deriding others.
The Ashgate Research Companion to Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe, ed. Allyson Poska, Katherine McIver, and Jane Couchman, 2013
Sächsische Heimat Blätter 55:2 , 2009
Isis, 2007
This essay proposes that the well-documented interest in empirical and experimental practice at t... more This essay proposes that the well-documented interest in empirical and experimental practice at the early modern German courts was not limited to male practitioners. Just as princes evinced an interest in practical alchemy, mathematics, and astronomy, a large number of gentlewomen became expert medical practitioners. Using a case study of one noblewoman, Electress Anna of Saxony, I would like to expand the notion of "prince-practitioning" to a more general and inclusive "court experimentalism." Like the prince-practitioners, Anna engaged in a laborious attempt to learn the hands-on techniques involved in becoming an expert; she collaborated with both noblewomen and noblemen in her efforts; and she semantically linked her medicine to the alchemical skills (Künste) practiced by her husband, Elector August. Although court experimentalism cannot be equated with experimentation in the modern sense, medicine is one area in which women actively shared in the early modern fascination with empirical knowledge.
Medicina & Storia 52, 2008
This article addresses the role of women in directing household and estate medical care. Specific... more This article addresses the role of women in directing household and estate medical care. Specifically, it examines the household apothecary as depicted in Baron Wolfgang Helmhard von Hohberg's Georgica curiosa (1682), one of the most extensive and successful seventeenth-century housefather books. While most housefather books are directed at the master of the house, Hohberg included an entire book for the mistress of the house. Over two thirds of that book deal with the medical care of the estate, which he put firmly in the hands of the housemother. He directed the mistress to put together a "small, serviceable apothecary," he listed dozens of ingredients and medicines that she should keep to hand, and he included an extensive collection of medicinal recipes. Many of Hohberg's directives to the housemother were drawn from other housefather books and agricultural manuals, particularly Olivier de Serres's Théâtre d'agriculture. However, his collection of medicinal recipes was a departure from precedent, as it drew simple recipes from the works of various famous physicians and surgeons. Rather than reflecting the current state of medical care at estates in Lower Austria, Georgica curiosa represents an idealized picture of what Hohberg felt the housewife's medical repertoire ought to be.
Book Reviews by Alisha Rankin
Bulletin of The History of Medicine, 2009
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Books by Alisha Rankin
Rankin demonstrates the ways in which noblewomen’s pharmacy was bound up in notions of charity, class, religion, and household roles, as well as in expanding networks of knowledge and early forms of scientific experimentation. The opening chapters place noblewomen’s healing within the context of cultural exchange, experiential knowledge, and the widespread search for medicinal recipes in early modern Europe. Case studies of renowned healers Dorothea of Mansfeld and Anna of Saxony then demonstrate the value their pharmacy held in their respective roles as elderly widow and royal consort, while a study of the long-suffering Duchess Elisabeth of Rochlitz emphasizes the importance of experiential knowledge and medicinal remedies to the patient’s experience of illness.
Introduction: Secrets and Knowledge, Elaine Leong and Alisha Rankin
Part I Defining Secrets:
How to read a book of secrets, William Eamon;
What is a secret? Secrets and craft knowledge in early modern Europe, Pamela H. Smith.
Part II Secrecy and Openness:
The secrets of Sir Hugh Platt, Ayesha Mukherjee;
Robert Boyle and secrecy, Michael Hunter;
Openness vs. secrecy in the Hartlib circle: revisiting 'democratic Baconism' in Interregnum England, Michelle DiMeo.
Part III Illicit Secrets:
Anna Zieglerin's alchemical revelations, Tara Nummedal;
Face waters, oils, love magic and poison: making and selling secrets in early modern Rome, Tessa Storey.
Part IV Secrets and Health:
Keeping beauty secrets in early modern Iberia, Montserrat Cabré;
Secrets to healthy living: the revival of the preventive paradigm in late Renaissance Italy, Sandro Cavallo;
Secrets of place: the medical casebooks of Vivant-Augustin Ganiare, Lisa Wynne Smith
***
Secrets played a central role in transformations in medical and scientific knowledge in early modern Europe. As a new fascination with novelty began to take hold from the late fifteenth century, Europeans thirsted for previously unknown details about the natural world: new plants, animals, and other objects from nature, new recipes for medical and alchemical procedures, new knowledge about the human body, and new facts about the way nature worked. These 'secrets' became popular items of commerce and trade, as the quest for new and exclusive bits of information met the vibrant early modern marketplace. Whether disclosed widely in print or kept more circumspect in manuscripts, secrets helped drive an expanding interest in acquiring knowledge throughout early modern Europe.
Bringing together international scholars, this volume provides a pan-European and interdisciplinary overview on the topic. Each essay offers significant new interpretations of the role played by secrets in their area of specialization. Chapters address key themes in early modern history and the history of medicine, science and technology including: the possession, circulation and exchange of secret knowledge across Europe; alchemical secrets and laboratory processes; patronage and the upper-class market for secrets; medical secrets and the emerging market for proprietary medicines; secrets and cosmetics; secrets and the body and finally gender and secrets.
Papers by Alisha Rankin
Book Reviews by Alisha Rankin
Rankin demonstrates the ways in which noblewomen’s pharmacy was bound up in notions of charity, class, religion, and household roles, as well as in expanding networks of knowledge and early forms of scientific experimentation. The opening chapters place noblewomen’s healing within the context of cultural exchange, experiential knowledge, and the widespread search for medicinal recipes in early modern Europe. Case studies of renowned healers Dorothea of Mansfeld and Anna of Saxony then demonstrate the value their pharmacy held in their respective roles as elderly widow and royal consort, while a study of the long-suffering Duchess Elisabeth of Rochlitz emphasizes the importance of experiential knowledge and medicinal remedies to the patient’s experience of illness.
Introduction: Secrets and Knowledge, Elaine Leong and Alisha Rankin
Part I Defining Secrets:
How to read a book of secrets, William Eamon;
What is a secret? Secrets and craft knowledge in early modern Europe, Pamela H. Smith.
Part II Secrecy and Openness:
The secrets of Sir Hugh Platt, Ayesha Mukherjee;
Robert Boyle and secrecy, Michael Hunter;
Openness vs. secrecy in the Hartlib circle: revisiting 'democratic Baconism' in Interregnum England, Michelle DiMeo.
Part III Illicit Secrets:
Anna Zieglerin's alchemical revelations, Tara Nummedal;
Face waters, oils, love magic and poison: making and selling secrets in early modern Rome, Tessa Storey.
Part IV Secrets and Health:
Keeping beauty secrets in early modern Iberia, Montserrat Cabré;
Secrets to healthy living: the revival of the preventive paradigm in late Renaissance Italy, Sandro Cavallo;
Secrets of place: the medical casebooks of Vivant-Augustin Ganiare, Lisa Wynne Smith
***
Secrets played a central role in transformations in medical and scientific knowledge in early modern Europe. As a new fascination with novelty began to take hold from the late fifteenth century, Europeans thirsted for previously unknown details about the natural world: new plants, animals, and other objects from nature, new recipes for medical and alchemical procedures, new knowledge about the human body, and new facts about the way nature worked. These 'secrets' became popular items of commerce and trade, as the quest for new and exclusive bits of information met the vibrant early modern marketplace. Whether disclosed widely in print or kept more circumspect in manuscripts, secrets helped drive an expanding interest in acquiring knowledge throughout early modern Europe.
Bringing together international scholars, this volume provides a pan-European and interdisciplinary overview on the topic. Each essay offers significant new interpretations of the role played by secrets in their area of specialization. Chapters address key themes in early modern history and the history of medicine, science and technology including: the possession, circulation and exchange of secret knowledge across Europe; alchemical secrets and laboratory processes; patronage and the upper-class market for secrets; medical secrets and the emerging market for proprietary medicines; secrets and cosmetics; secrets and the body and finally gender and secrets.