The essays below offer contexts for understanding early medicine. They are authored by leading scholars and peer reviewed.
![The byrth of mankynde 1545 Birth figure showing foetus in womb](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2023-12/The%20byrth%20of%20mankynde.jpg?itok=QHEq_n1C)
Childbirth
Leah Astbury, University of Manchester
![Astrologaster 1620 Astrologaster 1620](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2023-12/insert_astrologaster-750x628_1.jpeg?itok=HT1PPeJN)
Astrological Medicine
Robert Ralley, University of Cambridge
![Aristotles Masterpiece 1684 Aristotles Masterpiece 1684](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2023-12/Anon%20Aristotles%20Masterpiece%201684_1.jpg?itok=AOG1uxo_)
Monstrosity
Emily Cock, Cardiff University
![Papermaker's apprentice 1568 A papermaker's apprentice carries a stack of sheets](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2023-03/35735ae0b176b500c67ee74177d42691.jpg?itok=0miqiICF)
Apprenticeship
Patrick Wallis, London School of Economics
![Harvey De motu cordis 1628 Illustration of blood flow from Harvey De motu cordis](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2023-03/Harvey%20circulation.jpg?itok=wRScvWwp)
Anatomy
Kathleen Crowther, University of Oklahoma
![Nuremberg broadside 1658 A man smokes a pipe accompanied by three women](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2023-01/broadside_2.jpg?itok=3Qvq67yC)
Early Modern Drugs
Benjamin Breen, University of California Santa Cruz
![Hogarth O the Roast Beef of Old England 1749 A friar sizes up a side of beef held by a butcher](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2023-01/T03918_10.jpg?itok=lQ8JJftg)
English Ethnicity and Health
Mary Floyd-Wilson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
![Pare prosthetic arm in Instrumenta chyrurgiae 1567 An illustration of a prosthetic arm](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2022-09/Pare%20mechanical%20arm_1.jpg?itok=JoYAIM2G)
Disability
Emily Cock, Cardiff University
![Medical incunabulum detail Detail of a rose in medical incunabulum](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2022-09/premodern-medicine_5.jpg?itok=vxhVdu5-)
![Paracelsus Portrait of Paracelsus](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2022-09/Paracelsus.jpg?itok=Rd2Fs27m)
Chemical Medicine, Theory
Bruce T. Moran, University of Nevada
![Brunschwig Large Book of Distillation woodcut A man distills liquid using a still](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2022-09/Brunschwig%20still.jpg?itok=1ED55MHM)
Chemical Medicine, Practice
Bruce T. Moran, University of Nevada
![Brunschwig Pestbuch A woman is let blood by a surgeon](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2022-09/Brunschwig%20Des%20sanguineus%20blud.jpg?itok=bKBPz_ny)
Medicine on the Early Modern Stage
Tanya Pollard, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
![School of Durer pox sufferer 1496 A sufferer from pox stands under an astrological globe](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2022-09/Durer%20syphilitic%20man%201496.jpg?itok=0mspgE39)
Contagion
Kevin Siena, Trent University
![Distillers Distillers](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2018-07/Distilling.jpg?itok=a8RGBJQB)
The Range of Healers in Early Modern England
Mary Fissell, Johns Hopkins University
![Disease Disease](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2018-07/Disease.jpg?itok=QHGt5Ol2)
![Patients 2 Patients 2](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2018-07/Patients%202.png?itok=e9y1wLFG)
Patients
Olivia Weisser, University of Massachusetts Boston
![Galle This print shows a printing workshop, with people engraving, inking, and running copper plates through the press, and hanging the printed sheets up to dry.](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2019-05/1%20-%20Galle%2C%20Sculptura%20in%20aes.jpg?itok=RxR_QKXQ)
Printing Images
Rebecca Whiteley, University of Manchester
![Pinder, uroscopy chart Uroscopy chart](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2019-04/4%20-%20Pinder%20uroscopy%20chart_0.jpg?itok=ROg30qRA)
Medical Images
Rebecca Whiteley, University of Manchester
![Treatment on the Battlefield none](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2019-06/arrow%20woodcut_0.jpg?itok=COE0uX1p)
Military Medicine
Seth LeJacq, Duke University
![Apothecary shop Apothecary shop](/sites/default/files/styles/mpiwg_content_image/public/2019-07/apothecary1_0.jpg?itok=CrE8C62k)