Making and marketing medicine in Renaissance Florence

351 Pages·2011·20.72 MB·English

by  James Edric Shaw & Evelyn S. Welch

MAKING AND MARKETING MEDICINE
IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE
THE WELLCOME SERIES
IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE
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MAKING AND MARKETING MEDICINE
IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE
James Shaw and Evelyn Welch
Amsterdam – New York, NY 2011
First published in 2011
by Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam – New York, NY 2011.
Editions Rodopi B.V. © 2011
Design and Typesetting by Mike Laycock,
The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL.
Printed and bound in The Netherlands by Editions Rodopi B.V.,
Amsterdam – New York, NY 2011.
Index by Rosemary Anderson and James Shaw.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-90-420-3156-2
E-Book ISBN978-90-420-3157-9
‘Making and Marketing Medicine in Renaissance Florence’–
Amsterdam – New York, NY:
Rodopi. – ill.
(Clio Medica 89 / ISSN 0045-7183;
The Wellcome Series in the History of Medicine)
The Wellcome name is used under licence from the Wellcome Trust.
Front cover:
‘Christ the Pharmacist with Adam and Eve’,
from Chants royaux sur la Conception couronnee du Puy de Rouen.
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Ms Fr 1537,
Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library.
© Editions Rodopi B. V., Amsterdam – New York, NY 2011
Printed in The Netherlands
All titles in the Clio Medica series (from 1999 onwards) are available to
download from the IngentaConnect website: http://www.ingentaconnect.co.uk
Contents
List of Images 1
List of Tables 3
List of Charts 5
Abbreviations 7
Glossary 9
Currencies, Weights and Measures 15
1 Introduction and Acknowledgements 17
PARTONE: SELLINGHEALTH
2 The Shop and the City 31
3 Keeping Shop 53
PARTTWO: CUSTOMERSANDCREDIT
4 People and their Purchases 81
5 Recovering Debts 123
PARTTHREE: PRODUCTS
6 Wax 159
7 Sugar and Spices 191
8 Medicines 233
9 Epilogue 291
Bibliography 313
Index 341
List of Images
1.1 Damian Hirst, Pharmacy 18
1.2 Archivio dell’ Ospedale degli Innocenti,
Speziale al Giglioaccounts 20
1.3 Archivio dell’ Ospedale degli Innocenti,
account of ‘Benedetto di Bartolomio degli Alesandri’ 21
2.1 Mercato Vecchio, Florence 32
2.2 The Four Humours from the Guild Book
of the Barber Surgeons of York 33
2.3 ‘Vomiting’, Italian School, fourteenth century 34
2.4 ‘Sleep-talking’, Italian School, fourteenth century 35
2.5 ‘Planet Man’ from Book of Hours 36
3.1 Historiated Initial ‘D’ from Historia Naturalis 54
3.2 Fresco Interior of a Pharmacy 57
3.3 Page from the Canon of Medicineby Avicenna (Ibn Sina) 60
3.4 Christ the Pharmacist with Adam and Eve, from
‘Chants royaux sur la Conception couronnee du Puy de Rouen’ 61
6.1 ‘The Candle Shop’ from Tacuinum Sanitatis 165
6.2 ‘A Good Harvest’: The Shrine and Market of Orsanmichele 166
6.3 Benedetto Bonfigli,
The ‘Gonfalone’ orStandard of St Bernadino of Siena 170
1
List of Images
6.4 Domenico Ghirlandaio, The Death of St Francis 171
6.5 Jean Fouquet, Service for the Dead 172
7.1 ‘Sugar’ from Tacuinum Santitatis 192
7.2 Sandro Botticelli, The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti
[Third Episode] 203
7.3 Sandro Botticelli, The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti
[Fourth Episode] 204
8.1 Ricettario fiorentino di nuovo illustrato 234
8.2 Medicinal Rhubarb 241
9.1 Jan van der Straet (Giovanni Stradano),
Alchemical experiments in the Medici fondaco 294
9.2 Jan Galle after Jan van der Straet (Giovanni Stradano),
Nova Reperta: Treatment with Holy Wood 300
9.3 Painted and Gilt Terracotta Jar for Theriac 302
9.4 Painted and Gilt Terracotta Jar for Mithridatum 303
2
List of Tables
3.1 Wholesale Supplies: Top Fifteen Commodity Groups,
1500–2 66
4.1 Distribution of Purchasing at the Giglio, 1493–4 94
4.2 Top Ten Clients, Sample Year 95
4.3 Purchasing Patterns by Client Type 98
4.4 Consumption Patterns by Client Type 99
6.1 Retail Sales by Commodity Group 160
6.2 Sales Figures by Day of Week, 1493–4 162
7.1 Spices: Comparison of Data
from the Inventory and Wholesale Records 196
7.2 Spices: Data from Retail Records 197
7.3 Sweets: Consumption 1493–4, in Order of Importance 201
8.1 Price Distribution of Purges 237
8.2 Comparison of Giglio and Santa Maria Nuova 243
8.3 Top Ten Drugs, 1493–4 245
8.4 Stocks of Key Compound Drugs 246
8.5 Top Ten ‘Waters’ Used in Liquid Purges, 1493–4 246
8.6 Price Distribution of Composite Electuaries 248
3