Louise Hill Curth’s English Almanacs, Astrology & Popular Medicine, 1550 – 1700 has recently come out from Manchester University Press.
Early modern almanacs have received relatively little academic attention over the years, despite being the first true form of British mass media. While their major purpose was to provide annual information about the movements of the stars and the corresponding effects on earth, most contained a range of other material, including advice on preventative and remedial medicine for humans and animals. Based on the most extensive study to date of the relationship between the popular press, early modern medical beliefs and practices, Louise Hill Curth argues that these cheap, annual booklets played a major role in shaping contemporary medical beliefs and practices in early modern England. Almanacs continued to disseminate and help perpetuate orthodox, traditional astrological-Galenic principles, showing few signs of the quantitative and objective medical system attributed to the late seventeenth century.
Louise Hill Curth is Senior Lecturer in Health Studies at Bath Spa University
