Three key Renaissance Doctors - Vesalius, Pare and Paracelsus

For  our purposes the Renaissance begins around 1450 to 1500 and lasts to 1750.  It was a period of great discovery and learning.  The term means revival or rediscovery - and refers to the rediscovery and new learning influenced by classical art.  This was also true of Medicine where the classical works of Hippocrates and Galen were investigated and challenged.  Three key people in doing this were; Vesalius, Pare and Harvey.  Below there are links that will take you to other sites that will give you key information on each that will help you make sure you have good notes.  However in short; Vesalius believed that the study of anatomy needed to be based on dissecting human bodies.  His books De humani corporis fabrica used realistic images drawn by artists; his study of the human jawbone was key evidence in proving that Galen was wrong.  Galen had claimed the bone was in two parts whereas Vesalius showed that it was one single piece. Pare developed a key surgical technique showing that improvements could  be made by dressing a wound and using ligatures to tie off veins and arteries.  This was much more effective than cauterizing the wound.  William Harvey proved that the heart was a pump and that the blood circulated through the body in a single direction.  All three provided key discoveries but these took time to be accepted.

This will take you to the BBC GCSE bitesize on surgery including a video.

Click here to find out more about Ambroise Pare

Oh - and don't forget Paracelsus - click here for the science museum biography and here for Britannica.

c1500-c1700: The Medical Renaissance in England

The period from around 1500 to 1700 is known as the Renaissance.  Renaissance is a French worked that means re-birth.  During the Renaissance people started to re-look at Classical learning.  This included re-looking at works such as the Bible and Galen's medical texts.  This means that the renaissance was about so much more than just medicine; it affected art and literature too.

During the Renaissance doctors looked at ancient doctors works and began to test and criticize them.  One of the most famous of these was Vesalius who wrote De Humani Corporis Fabrica which challenged Galen's ideas on anatomy.  As a result of the Renaissance doctors were also beginning to reject the ideas of the Four Humours.

Medieval Hospitals

When studying hospitals during the Middle Ages it is important not to think about the National Health Service (NHS) and modern Hospitals.  Find out about the origins of the word hospital or look at some old maps of town and cities and see how many have areas called hospital fields.  Look at these words and think about what they mean and their origins; Hospital - Hospitality - Hostel - Hotel.

Medieval Hospitals were often attached to Monasteries and Convents; they provided hospitality and rest; limited numbers offered care for the sick and the level of care they provided was limited.  Their was no consistent approach; each Hospital was independent and did things their own way.  Some were set up specifically intended to care for the sick.  The Lord Mayor of London - Richard (Dick) Whittington set up an eight bed chamber at St Thomas's hospital which was intended for unmarried pregnant women.  However, notice how few beds it had and think about how many unmarried pregnant women there would have been in London.  In London another Hospital was set up to care for poor and silly persons called St Mary of Bethlehem later to become known as Bedlam; an infamous Victorian madhouse.

Hospitals were not run by doctors but nuns and monks.  Each Hospital was different depending on the aims of the Abbot in charge, so it is difficult to generalize.  However, in general they provided rest, warmth, food and shelter. Conditions were clean and for many the combination of food and rest was enough for them to recover.  Simple cures or remedies were also offered; the Nuns would provide herbal cures and the monks and nuns would pray for your recovery.  Whether it worked or not is not the issue - they genuinely believed that praying for your recovery was as important as any other treatment.

When it comes to the exam you could well be asked something similar to the following question:

Describe the key features of the care that was available to Patients in English hospitals during the late Middle Ages.