Healing, performance and ceremony in the writings of three early modern physicians: Hippolytus Guarinonius and the brothers Felix and Thomas Platter, by M. A. Katritzky, Farnham, Ashgate, 2012, xiv + 451 pp., £95.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-7546-6707-0

Abstract

Healing, performance and ceremony in the writings of three early modern physicians: Hippolytus Guarinonius and the brothers Felix and Thomas Platter, by M. A. Katritzky, Farnham, Ashgate, 2012, xiv + 451 pp., £95.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-7546-6707-0The early modern patient-doctor relationship was not intimate and confidential, but often played out in front of family and friends at the bedside. To convince this audience of their abilities, their correct diagnosis and treatment, physicians had to rely on their ability to perform and sell themselves. This professional interest in theatrical performances is reflected in the writings of the protestant Swiss physicians Felix and Thomas Platter as well as the catholic Hippolytus Guarinonius, who practised in Hall near Innsbruck. In her book on Healing, Performance and Ceremony in early modern medicine, M. A. Katritzky studies the deep fascination of these three physicians with performers, their stage practices and repertoire. They documented and commented on court festivals, carnival and performances of itinerant troupes across Europe the second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century. These often included healing performances as well as the advertising and trading of medicines and other healthcare services. Katritzky situates the accounts of the three physicians in their personal, professional and socio-religious contexts, with the intention to develop a more profound understanding of the overlaps and interactions between early modern medical and theatre culture.After an introduction of the three physicians, their travels, medical knowledge and interests in performance, Part II of the book draws a picture of the wider context of European festival culture. Based on the writings of the Platter brothers, it illuminates medical as well as theatrical aspects of carnival, the culmination of the European festive year. This is supplemented by Thomas Platter's account of the festive activities and rituals of the Jews as the biggest religious minority. Another subject is court festivals where the Platter brothers almost offer views from below which are usually ignored in the official accounts. The next two chapters focus more closely on healing and performance and the marketing strategies of itinerant troupes selling medicines. Part III discusses how performers used healing and medical marketing as part of their commercial strategies, covering a wide range of themes Thomas Platter's account of the English theatre to magic and monsters. Part IV is based on Thomas Platter's and Guarinonius's descriptions of stage routines of quack troupes and includes the identification of the itinerant troupe leader Zan Bragetta as Giovanni Paolo Alfieri. It is a close examination of the intimate relationship between performing and healing and shows the frequent overlaps between theatre and medicine in early modern Europe. In the final part of the book, Katritzky presents translations of some source texts Felix and Thomas Platter as well as Guarinonius.The travel journals and diaries of the Platter brothers and Guarinonius' medical treatise Die Grewel der Verwustung Menschlichen Geschlechts (1610) provide substantial sources to illuminate the links between stage practices and healing performances. Especially, Thomas Platter and Guarinonius are well familiar to theatre historians, while both Platter brothers are known to historians of medicine as eminent physicians of their hometown Basel and at court as well as prominent members of the early modern republic of letters. However, the potential of their writings to study the relationship between medical and stage practices has not yet been fully realised. …