A Bridge to the Underworld? An Explanation of the Act of Digging up Plant Roots in Early Modern Medical Fictions (2023)
This chapter explores why the underground or the subterranean is a recurring theme in several ‘medical fictions’ of the early-modern period. First, though, a definition of ‘medical fiction’ is needed. If, as Margaret Healy stresses in her book "Fictions of Disease in Early Modern England," disease is a “recurring nightmare of great fiction,” a persistent theme of the texts she discusses is the Underworld. These medical fictions were, according to her, discourses “which could simultaneously embrace and (by pre-scribing prevention and cure) intervene in multiple areas of life”, such as political and religious matters. Medical fictions might be verse, epic poetry (derived from oral tradition), plays or even myths containing legendary and ancient medical notions. These texts give us clues that inform a cultural understanding of diseases and their remedies. Some of these fictions offer substantial information on how medicine was theorized and practiced in the early modern period. This study will focus on the example of the mandrake, as it exemplifies the extent to which a subterranean plant, orthe parts of a plant found underground, that is the roots, served as key elements in the definition and description of plants and their use as cures in the early modern period. By concentrating on the rhetorical aspects of texts about the mandrake, this case study will uncover the broader metaphors used to convey information on vegetal medicine.
...MoreBook Fabrizio Baldassarri (2023) Plants in 16th and 17th Century: Botany between Medicine and Science.
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