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RAWCLIFFE, C., Medicine and Society in Later Medieval England. Alan Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 1995. XVI,241,(XV)p. ills.(B&W as well as full colour photographs). Original black hard bound with dust wrps. Spine gilt titled. Signature and date in pencil on free endpaper. Nice copy. ‘Carole Rawcliffe’s social history of medicine in late-medieval England is a valuable piece of scholarship. It is intended for a wide readership, and serves as a general introduction to medieval medical theory and practice for readers with no previous knowledge of the field, at the same time providing a great deal of new information on the social ramifications of medicine for a more specialised audience. Rawcliffe’s treatment of the topic reveals and benefits from her familiarity with other aspects of medieval society - social stratification in general, and the life style of the nobility and royalty in particular. (…) The book contains nine chapters, a short conclusion, and a brief section on further reading. The first chapter focuses on diseases of the soul. Rawcliffe shows how religious and moral ideas permeated medieval medical theory and practice and affected not only attitudes towards, and the treatment of, various mental disorders, but also diseases of the body like leprose or the plague. The chapter on ideas about the body outlines the principles of medieval physiological theory, which were inherited from Ancient Greek physicians through the Arab world, formed the core of medical teaching at universities throughout the Middle Ages, and were assimilated with various degrees of understanding across all levels of the medical profession and society in general. (…) Chapter eight addresses specifically the conflicting attitudes towards women as they were reflected in contemporary medical theory about female physiology and in attitudes towards women as practitioners. The final chapter focuses on the two most common female professionals: the midwife and the nurse. (…) The special hallmark of this book (…) is the way in which the author makes use of primary sources. (…) Rawcliffe emphasises the importance of records which often remain neglected bu social historians of medicine, and makes use of the kind of records ‘which are customarily the preserve of scholars active in other disciplines’ (p.XIV). (…) By examining evidence gathered from this broad range of material written mainly in the vernacular, Rawcliffe provides the reader with interesting insights into the dissemination of medical ideas, the practice of maintaining and restoring health, and the development, functioning and social significance of the medical profession in late-medieval England. Unlike many other historians of medicine, Rawcliffe also illustrates her discussion with frequent extracts from primary sources. (…) Rawcliffe also makes admirable use of the rich tradition of manuscript illuminations. The volume contains twenty-one colour plates and sixty-four black-and-white illustrations mainly from medieval medical manuscripts (…). The majority of manuscript illuminations are from the fifteenth century and some of them are reproduced here for the first time.’ (PAÏVI PAHTA in Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 2000, pp.610-611). € 40.00 (Antiquarian) ISBN: 9780862995980