Drugs

Medication was the most prevalent method of treating illnesses during the Renaissance. The main alternative was phlebotomy (bloodletting, discussed later), with its inherent dangers. Most medicinal remedies of the Renaissance were known in the Middle Ages, if not in the ancient world. Tea made from willow bark, for example, was used to reduce fever. (We now know that willow bark contains salicylates, the main component of aspirin.) Plant products from colonies in the Far East and the Americas significantly improved Renaissance pharmacology. One of the more beneficial drugs was ipecacuanha, which could loosen chest congestion. Even chocolate, coffee, and tobacco were first recommended for their medicinal properties. Although Europeans were also curious about exotic animals such as the armadillo, they were serious in their study of exotic plants because of their potential pharmacological value.

Drugs were usually dispensed by apothecaries, who learned their trade in the guild system. In many cities apothecaries competed with physicians, offering medical advice along with their products. During the 16th century, several cities, such as Amsterdam, passed ordinances prohibiting apothecaries from selling medication without the written order of a physician. Outwardly conforming to local legislation, most apothecaries evidently continued to advise “patients,” some of whom simply wanted the distilled alcoholic concoctions sold at apothecary shops. Apothecaries were, in fact, as well trained in pharmacopoeia as many physicians. They experimented with different combinations of medication and learned, as best they could, to substitute ingredients for items in ancient recipes that were no longer available.

Leonhard Fuchs (1501-66), chair of the medical faculty at the University of Tubingen, wrote the best medical herbal of the first half of the 16th century. His De historia stirpium (History of plants, 1542) established a new standard of excellence in botanical publications. The woodcut illustrations were particularly important as great care was taken in their execution. One of the works translated by Carolus Clusius was the 1563 Portuguese account of the drugs of India by Garcia de Orta (c. 1500-c. 1568), a physician

Science and Medicine

Who lived in Goa. His entry on cinnamon typifies the clarity of his work. Stating that cinnamon is both a spice and a drug, the author explained that, because of linguistic corruption, it had two names in Malaysia. He described both the tree and its bark in great detail. Modern scholars have suggested that the Renaissance impulse to measure and quantify such commodities in colonial territory was one way of gaining control over unfamiliar, unknown lands and people.

Many researchers studying medicinal plants worked closer to home. Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605), professor of natural history at the University of Bologna, investigated plants in the herbarium that he founded there, which can be visited today. (For more information on drugs, see Chapter 12.)