Book reveals Renaissance England’s medical revolution

The true story of medicine's transformation in Renaissance England is explored in a new book which challenges popular misconceptions about healthcare in the period.

The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack: How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England, published this month, examines how modern medicine began to take shape during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Author Dr Alanna Skuse, of the University of Reading’s Department of English Literature, ventures into the medical marketplace of Renaissance England, introducing readers to the diverse practitioners who provided healthcare—from travelling surgeons and prosthetics craftsmen to domestic healers and midwives.

Dr Alanna Skuse said: “The clichéd view of Renaissance medicine is all gore-splattered hacksaws and bizarre treatments. Reality proves somewhat different. This was a period of genuine medical revolution, with physicians' education being formalised, surgeons documenting human anatomy with greater skill, and new medicines being discovered through European expansion."

The book features remarkable historical figures including Elizabeth Freke, who dispensed folk remedies to neighbours; Nicholas Culpeper, who laid groundwork for modern pharmacy; pioneering midwife Jane Sharp; and plague doctor George Thomson, who braved London's Great Plague.

Dr Alanna Skuse has been studying historical attitudes towards self-injury from the Renaissance to present day, leading art workshops that use creative expression to reduce stigma around self-harm. Her work, which included theatre performances in July 2024 and an exhibition at Bristol's Glenside Hospital Museum, helps participants better understand their own experiences by providing historical and cultural context. Read more: Self-injury through time

The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack: How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England is published by Oneworld and is available now.