Women and the Practice of Medical Care in Early Modern Europe, 1400-1800

Women have engaged in healing from the beginning of history, often within the context of the home. This book studies the role, contributions and challenges faced by women healers in France, Spain, Italy and England, including medical practice among women in the Jewish and Muslim communities, from the later Middle Ages to approximately 1800.

Leigh Whaley is Professor of European History at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her research interests range from the French Revolution to women, gender and science and medicine. She has published books on Napoleon, the French Revolution and a History of Women in Science. Her most recent publication, 'Clandestine Operations': Odette Sansom and Andre Borrel, Exemplary Agents of the Special Operations Executive, appeared in Les femmes face la guerre, edited by Alison S. Fell.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Medieval Contribution
New Medical Regulations and their Impact on Female Healers
Early Modern notions of Women: Contradictory Views on Women as Healers
Medical Treatises and Texts written by Women and for Women
Female Midwives and the Medical Profession
The Healing Care of Nurses
The 'Irregular' Female Healer in Early modern Europe: a Variety of Practitioners
Motherly Medicine: Domestic Healers and Apothecaries
The Wise-Woman as Healer: Popular Medicine, Witchcraft and Magic
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index