Forgotten Healers

This superbly researched and elegantly written study of women’s roles in the pursuit of health in late Renaissance Italy puts women back in the center of medical knowledge and medical practices during a major turning point in European history. -- Judith Brown, author of Immodest Acts
Beautifully illuminates the many ways in which women acted as medical agents and became medical artisans in Renaissance Florence and beyond. Strocchia’s deeply researched study reveals how Medici women, controversial saintly healers, nun apothecaries, and hospital nurses in an age of syphilis all participated in a political economy of family, faith, health, and charity. Essential reading for anyone interested in gender and medicine in the early modern era. -- Paula Findlen, author of Possessing Nature
Impeccably researched and highly readable, Forgotten Healers is the most comprehensive study of early modern women’s involvement in medicine to date. A remarkable book with fresh perspectives that significantly advances our understanding of the distinctive ways of learning and knowing that characterized the early modern age. -- Sandra Cavallo, coauthor of Healthy Living in Late Renaissance Italy
Makes a vital contribution to the history of medicine, gender studies, and Renaissance studies. With plentiful excursuses throughout that reward curiosity with delightful explanations, and lucid and engaging prose, Strocchia showcases the various roles carried out by women in the provision of health care in early modern Italy. -- Sheila Barker, Director at the Medici Archive Project
Forgotten Healers defines medical work to include the activities of people beyond professional physicians and surgeons. This broader understanding of early modern medical knowledge and practice underwrites Strocchia’s powerful rethinking of early modern medicine, making women and women’s contributions not only integral but central. -- Katharine Park, author of Secrets of Women
One of the best books on the Italian Renaissance in years—at once insightful, illuminating, wide-ranging, and comprehensive…It is also a pleasure to read. -- Douglas Biow * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *
A richly illustrated description of the various ways in which women were involved in medical care within Renaissance Italy…It not only builds upon and expands existing bodies of work in often fascinating ways but also suggests many new directions for research on which future scholars can—and no doubt will—build. -- Neil Tarrant * Canadian Journal of History *
Strocchia gives voice to noblewomen, nuns, and nurses engaged in medicine and pharmacy, reconstructing their networks of knowledge and business…A great contribution for all scholars engaging with early modern healing practices and represents a valuable enrichment of our perception of this field. -- Marco Faini * Renaissance and Reformation *
A uniquely intimate tactile experience of the day-to-day business of healing and healthcare in Renaissance Italy. Strocchia’s painstaking and creative archival reconstructions of women healers in elite households, convents, and pox hospitals shows the extent to which women were immersed in and helped shape the medical marketplace as suppliers, producers, innovators, and consumers within a changing scientific and technological landscape. -- Elizabeth W. Melllyn * Annals of Science *
Argues convincingly for female medical spaces as sites of innovation…Rich and revealing in its detail and astute in its analysis, this book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in early modern social, medical, and gender history. -- Jane Stevens Crawshaw * Bulletin of the History of Medicine *
Richly detailed and wide-ranging…Essential reading for [those] who are interested in medical care in early modern cities, the role of women as healers in early modern Italy, and the convent as a site of knowledge and sociability in urban environments. -- Bradford Bouley * Early Modern Women *
Excellent…Reveal[s] the pervasive presence and agency of women in health care throughout late Renaissance Florence…A fascinating and extremely readable account of women in early modern health care, which also stands as testament to what a rich and cohesive field the study of women and health care has now become. -- Tessa Storey * Nuncius *
Based on extensive archival research and a wide reading of secondary literature, this clearly written book demonstrates that women played a large role in Italian Renaissance health care. * Choice *
An expansive history that integrates gender, economics, and health…This book helps us to see and hear the work of women as they engaged in health care in late Renaissance Italy. -- Cynthia Klestinec * Metascience *
An influential, insightful, and, indeed, formidable book that dispels one more time the notion that women, educated or not, were marginal to the medical, economic, social, and political economy of their time. Forgotten Healers is not simply a recuperation of women’s various work, mostly unpaid, in convents and hospitals in Renaissance Tuscany but a powerful reconstruction…of the many ways women—noblewomen, nuns, laywomen, and orphans—were fully functional members of the social fabric of their time. -- Valeria Finucci * Journal of Modern History *