The Places of Popular Medicine: Aristotle's Masterpiece in Context

Aristotle's Masterpiece was the most popular English book about reproduction from its first publication in 1684 all the way into the 1930s. It is not by Aristotle, nor a masterpiece, but affords the historian an unusual glimpse into plebeian sexuality and reading habits. While much of the content is typical of a late 17th century midwifery guide, its extremely long life makes it unique. 

The lecture explores the many physical spaces in which readers encountered and bought the Masterpiece in an attempt to understand its long-lived success - The book was hidden under teenage boys' mattresses; thumbed in book stalls; read aloud in girls' boarding schools, and sold by chapmen bringing metropolitan wares to distant rural communities.

Mary Fissell's recent publications include:
Vernacular Bodies: The Politics of Reproduction in Early Modern England ( Oxford University Press, 2004 ).

A reception will be held in the Treehouse (1st Floor, Berrick Saul) following the seminar

Contact bill.sherman@york.ac.uk or mark.jenner@york.ac.uk