A landmark work, this history of medical thought from antiquity through the Middle Ages reconstructs the slow transformations and sudden changes in theory and practice that marked the birth and early development of Western medicine.

Editor Mirko Grmek and his contributors adopt a synthetic, cross-disciplinary approach that conveys a complete and varied vision of our medical past, with attention to cultural, social, and economic forces as they have affected the historical flow of knowledge and the practice of medicine. The various chapters by an international group of scholars, isolate key ideas behind the history of medicine in the West: charity and aid for the sick; medical scholasticism; the concept of disease; intervention with surgery or drugs; and the regimen of health. Throughout, they highlight the links between socioeconomics in general, with a focus on the physician, and the scientific ideas, beliefs, and techniques behind prevailing medical practices. The result is a multifaceted history, unparalleled in its scope, of the myriad influences on the development of medical thought, and of the impact of that thought on other branches of knowledge and on human behavior across the centuries.

• Introduction
  Mirko D. Grmek
• The Birth of Western Medical Art
  Jacques Jouanna
• Between Knowledge and Practice: Hellenistic Medicine
  Mario Vegetti
• The Paths of Knowledge: Medicine in the Roman World
  Danielle Gourevitch
• Reception and Tradition: Medicine in the Byzantine and Arab World
  Gotthard Strohmaier
• Charity and Aid in Medieval Christian Civilization
  Jole Agrimi and Chiara Crisciani
• Medical Scholasticism
  Danielle Jacquart
• The Concept of Disease
  Mirko D. Grmek
• Therapeutic Strategies: Drugs
  Alain Touwaide
• Therapeutic Strategies: Surgery
  Michael McVaugh
• The Regimens of Health
  Pedro Gil Sotres
• Diseases in Europe: Equilibrium and Breakdown of the Pathocenosis
  Jean-Noël Biraben

Notes
Index