1st Edition
Poison, Medicine, and Disease in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Contents;
Acknowledgements;
Introduction;
1. Classical Authorities and Traditions
The ambiguity of pharmaka and venena.
Prevention, symptoms, and remedies.
Medical pharmacotherapy and theories of poison.
Compilation, synthesis, and specific form.
Conclusion
2. Poison and Venom in the Latin West before 1300
Poisons and venoms in translation.
Encyclopedic poisons.
Qualities, quantities, and forms.
Regulating poisonous drugs.
Conclusion.
3. Towards a New Toxicology
Food, medicine, and poison.
A new kind of poison text.
New "problems" of poison.
Patronage, poison, and medical learning.
Conclusion.
4. Plague, Poison, and Metaphor
Putrefied and poisoned air.
Plague as poison in the body.
Spreadable and contagious poison.
Conclusion.
5. Poisonous Properties, Bodies, and Forms
Occult definitions and forms.
Poisonous properties.
Poisonous bodies.
Poisoning, sorcery, and the evil eye.
Sympathetic forms.
Conclusion.
6. Poison, Putrefaction, and Ontology of Disease
Poisons, contagions, and the French Disease.
Poison as cause of disease.
Separating poison and medicine with Paracelsus.
Ontologies of poisons, forms, seeds, and disease.
Conclusion.
7. Reframing Toxicology
Reconciling the language of medicine and poison.
New approaches to venenum.
Poisons, venoms, and corruptions in the body.
Conclusion
Epilogue
Bibliography
Biography
Frederick W. Gibbs is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of New Mexico, USA.
