The English Physician Enlarged

£1,750 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

early manuscript note referencing menstrual health A scarce early edition of Culpeper's herbal with an unusual manuscript note repeated in mirror-writing on the rear endpaper that reads: 'woman's courses to stop or provoke, ekovorp ro pots sesrouc snamow', and with dog-eared pages corresponding to menstrual-related portions of the printed text. Scarce. ESTC records only 6 copies in institutional collections, 5 in the British Isles (BL, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Welcome Institute, Bodleian Library, and Reading University) and in North America at the Yale School of Medicine. In the Galenic paradigm that dominated medical thought during the medieval and early modern period, ailments were caused by imbalances of the four humours. It was thought that the uterus could become 'strangled' or 'suffocated', a condition in which excess humours were not dispelled through menstruation, and which could affect both fertility and the woman's overall health. Hundreds of substances were believed to provoke menstruation, and some could also be taken to expel the placenta or a dead fetus, or to cause an abortion, though this was generally discussed as a contraindication by male medical authors. Other substances could be used to stop the menses in cases of long or heavy periods (van de Walle, 'Flowers and Fruits: Two Thousand Years of Menstrual Regulation', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, autumn 1997). There was certainly great interest in regulating menstruation and reprodu

• Binding: Hardcover

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