How did doctors work 500 years ago? How did you identify and treat illnesses? And how did you treat patients? This is revealed by the handwritten notes of the 16th century doctor Georg Handsch. A historian from the University of Würzburg has now evaluated this treasure trove of sources in medical history and, in some cases, gained surprising insights into the everyday practice of a renaissance medic.
The medical theories of the Renaissance – the period from the 15th to the early 17th centuries – are largely known. Many scientific documents from the universities of the time bear witness to them. According to this, the four-juices doctrine was a scientific consensus at the time among doctors and healers. After this it was important to keep the four humors – blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile – in balance. If their balance was disturbed, the person became ill and the balance had to be restored, according to the theory.
Unique insights into the work of a renaissance doctor
But what was medical practice like in the Renaissance? Michael Stolberg, head of the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Julius Maximilians University (JMU) Würzburg, has examined this using a very special treasure trove of sources: Georg Handsch’s notes. This medic of the 16th century was not a luminary of his time, but after studying in Padua and Prague he at least made it to the personal physician of Ferdinand II of Tyrol. During his time as a doctor he made handwritten notes about his daily work as a doctor in the Renaissance, of which more than 4,000 pages have been preserved in a Viennese library.
Stolberg has now discovered and evaluated these records. In addition, he looked specifically for further medical papers and manuscripts. The result is a book that not only provides new insights into medical practice in the Renaissance, but also focuses on the relationships between doctor, patient and their relatives at that time. “My book is not about medical theories. My main concern is everyday practice, ”explains Stolberg. Stolberg calls Handsch’s manuscripts a “unique treasure”.
Getting diseases out of the body
The notes of the Renaissance doctor show, among other things, that medical practice had less in common with the then common scientific theory than previously assumed. “I had to fundamentally revise our idea of how doctors understood diseases at the time. The focus was not on the juice balance, but on the effort to remove the disease substances from the body, ”says Stolberg. The main therapies that Handsch and his Renaissance colleagues used were evacuating procedures. They should get the disease substances out.
“First and foremost, they were laxatives and emetics,” reports Stolberg. In addition, remedies that loosened the mucus from the nose and brain, promoted menstruation, or sweat banks. Bloodletting was also a must at the time. The bleeding took place “close to the disease” – at the part of the body that caused the symptoms. In the case of problems with the head, for example, there was bloodletting on the temple. Another popular method was the bloody cupping with warm vessels that were placed on the scratched skin and sucked in blood as it cooled.
Close relationship between doctor and patient
Another central point in the Renaissance physician Handsch’s records concerns the physician-patient relationship. This was often closer and also more understanding than previously assumed. In his notes, Handsch described many examples of how he and his colleagues explained a clinical picture and the associated treatment to their patients and their relatives. It was also important for him to see how he should deal with patients and relatives. For example, he noted their reactions to his conversations. From this it can be seen: At that time, many medical professionals gave predominantly negative prognoses for recovery – and were then all the more revered when they were healed. Handsch, on the other hand, often did not do this. “He apparently wanted to spare them the horror of a forecast and often fell on the nose,” said Stolberg.
According to Stolberg, two to three patients a day were the norm for the academic doctors of the Renaissance. “You can see very well that the doctors back then had time for their patients,” explains the medical historian. And if necessary, many doctors jumped over their shadows and had a close relationship with lay healers and “folk medicine”. Herbal medicine was therefore used from experience – even if one did not know why it helped against this or that disease.
Source: Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg; Publication: Scholarly Medicine and Everyday Medical Practice in the Renaissance by Michael Stolberg, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, doi: 10.1515 / 9783110707380