Vortrag im Josephinum | Dr. Vittoria Feola

English antiquarian medical books of the 1650s

In 1652 the English antiquary and amateur physician, Elias Ashmole (1617-92) printed a collection of old and new alchemical manuscripts, the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. It argued for the importance of marrying Paracelsianism to Galenism in order to produce new medicines. It also contained the story of the antiquary and alchemist John Dee, who found the philosopher's stone, that is the universal medicine par excellence, in the wall of an old abbey. Dee, that is, had found the perfect new medicine without working at it in a laboratory.
In 1658 Ashmole edited another old medical manuscript, several versions of which he had collected, The Way to Bliss. It was a regimen of health, advising men that a balanced diet, moderate exercise and enough sleep would help men keep healthy. In case of illness, The Way to Bliss recommended medicines prepared according to both Paracelsian and Galenical principles. As in the Theatrum, however, Ashmole told its readers that, this time it was himself who had found the philospher's stone among the leaves of the very manuscript which he was publishing.

Ashmole's books were about both therapeutic and preventive medicine. They were also antiquarian undertakings, since he had hunted, compared, amended and edited old and new medical manuscripts. But why go through all this antiquarian pain, if the universal medicine could be found ready made, as the stories of people finding the philosopher's stone seem to suggest? Was Ashmole really sure that both Dee and himself had found the philosopher's stone without working in a laboratory? Or were they examples of antiquarian rhetoric applied to contemporary medical issues, such as the reform of the medical regime and publishing medicine in English? What was the relationship between Ashmole's antiquarianism and his medical interests, and how did they reflect the intellectual preoccupations of the 1650s? My paper will try to answer these questions while addressing the generally ignored topic of English antiquarian medical books of the 1650s.
Where possible, parallels will be drawn with early modern Viennese physician-antiquaries. As both the English and the Austrian landscapes are still historiographically sketchy, I will conclude by suggesting that further research is needed about both.

Vittoria FEOLA, PhD in Cambridge (Thesis "Elias Ashmole and the Use of Antiquity"), Visiting Research Fellow at the Institut d'Histoire de l'Art in Paris and the Francqui Postdoctoral Fellow at the Université libre de Bruxelles. She is currrently Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of English Studies (University of London), member of the Cambridge Centre for Material Texts, compiling the catalogue of Elias Ashmole for the Oxford Bibliographical Society and has received a scholarship of MUW for her project ?Drug-making in early modern Vienna?.

Dr. Feola has published articles and essays about libraries and alchemy.
She is part of the History of Oxford University Press project, contributing a chapter about science and another one on law books published by OUP, 1585-1780s. She is the editor of the book ?Antiquarianism and Science in Urban Networks, ca 1580-1700? (forthcoming with Brepols).

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