Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken, Josse Lieferinxe

Strides in Medicine

The Renaissance was a time of large strides in the field of medicine, especially in regards to medical education and medicine as a profession. As humanists discovered ancient Greek medical texts, practitioners attempted to synthesize the medical knowledge and philosophy of Antiquity with the Scholasticism of the late medieval period.  Knowledge of the human body flourished as anatomy was beginning to be taught using cadavers, starting around 1300.[1] With this increased knowledge, Academia and society took strides towards professionalization of the field. As Nancy G. Siraisa states in her book Medieval & Early Renaissance Medicine, “ The idea of medical licensing first appears in legislation issued in Sicily before the mid-twelfth century; by the fourteenth century, regulations requiring practitioners to obtain some form of authentication of license from guilds, public authorities, or university faculties of medicine had become widespread in Europe.”[2]

            Theories vs Empirical Experimentation

However, while medicinal training grew within Universities across Italy and the rest of Europe, most actual medical practice in the field differed immensely from the theoretical training of the University. As William Eamon describes in Science and the Secrets of Nature, “The university medical professors developed sophisticated theories to explain the origin of diseases and the action of drugs, but their theories often had little influence upon medical practice.”[1]  Doctors and folk healers relied extensively on empirical evidence, rather than the complex theories of medical universities. Many university-trained doctors would write theses and dissertations based on theories, while in the field practicing medicine based on experimentation and observation.  

This experimental medicine fit into the category that Scholastics of the time called “secrets.” These medicinal recipes often relied on outlandish ingredients and application, and the results simply could not be explained by the scientific theories of the time.  This type of medicinal practice fit more naturally in the field of magic than anything else. As William Eamon writes, “Such ‘secrets’ lay outside the rational ordering of nature; they were purely contingent, and could not be predicted or explained by theoretical science.”[2] A book of secretes, such as The Secretes of the Reverende Mayster Alexis of Piemount, described an ailment, the recipe and application of the medicine, and the following result. “A ‘secret’ was both a recipe and a prescription for an experiment that, if successful, might reveal some ‘secret of nature.’”[3]

A Plague Doctor

            Alexis' "Secretes"

The Secretes of the Reverende Mayster Alexis of Piemount contains a huge number of medical recipes.  Out of all the recipes in the first edition, almost a third are medicinal. The vast majority of entries are cures to common wounds and diseases of the time. He lists cures for “burns and bites, discomfort of the eyes, toothache, sores, abscesses, intestinal wounds, stomachache, hemorrhoids, fevers, warts, rabies, and superficial wounds.” [1] Interestingly enough, Alexis lists almost thirty cures for the plague, indicating the pervasiveness of the dreaded disease during his day and age. For every recipe, Alexis has a heading above stating the purpose of the recipe. For example, a recipe for swollen knees has the heading “To heale swollen knees or legges, redde, and full of humours: a secrete merueylous good, easie to bee made, and of lytle charge, and often times proued.” What follows is a detailed recipe with application instructions:

"Take the skinne of a dogge, yf you may get it: or if not, take a white lambes skynne, or elles the skinne of a kidde, and cut a piece of it as broade as the palme of youre hande, or moore, and another piece of the length of your hande, or somewhat moore: then melte in a pan on the fier these thinges folowing: rosen of a Pine tree two pounde, Galbanum .v. vnces, Masticke an vnce, Muske, Amber, Tyuet, of eche of them sixe graynes, or as muche as you wyll, & breake the Masticke betwene two papers: then put the rosen and the Galbanum to melte in a panne with a small fier, and when it is well melted, ye shall putte the ma|sticke to it, and sturre them well with a lytle stycke, to the entent that nothing burne. After this lay it abrode whote as it is, vppon the saide skinne halfe a fynger thicke. Then take twelue or fiftene of these litle bea|stes called Monkes peason or sowes (whereof is founde a greate quantitie vnder stones in moyste places) and theym in a morter, with a litle Barrowes grease."

Harvested Saffron

Seceret Ingredients

What is especially interesting is the complexity and variance in ingredients amongst Alexis’ many recipes. For example, in the above recipe Alexis requires dog skin or lambskin, as well as pine rosin. Some recipes require simple local ingredients such as wheat and wine, while others require exotic ingredients like lavender and saffron. The complexity of many of the recipes as well as the often expensive and rare ingredients make the medicinal “secretes” more suitable for upper-class citizens during the Renaissance.