Women, Science and Medicine 1500-1700: Mothers and Sisters of the Royal Society

In this work, a group of international scholars attempt to make women visible in the history of science by rethinking the history of science itself. Modern definitions of science have tended to exclude women's actual contributions, particularly in discussions of the Renaissance, which does not offer a model of enquiry equivalent to modern science. However, during the period 1500-1700 women were making a substantial contribution to the development of "natural philosophy", a field which included science, medicine, technology and the history of ideas. Women from all parts of society worked both on their own and alongside men in a broad general practice of science and medicine that is reflected in their literary writings, their technical handbooks and the few books of science and philosophy which they left. The essays collected here are cross-disciplinary in approach and offer fresh research into the social and intellectual contexts for science as the English Renaissance moved from the formation of Gresham College in 1597 to the inauguration of the Royal Society in 1662. This volume provides studies on women's daily practice in the field of technology, science and medicine, on the books they used and their own writings, on the philosophical and experimental contributions they made, and on their relationships with men in their professional and intellectual communities. The chapters look at groups of women practitioners, particularly doctors, and at such exceptional figures as Mary Sidney, Alethea Arundel, Lucy Hutchinson, Anne Conway and Mary Cavendish. The critical approaches taken in these studies offer insights from social and intellectual history, literary and cultural analysis and an exploration of the issues surrounding the sources for our knowledge of the period.