PhD thesis defence by Andrea Evang
What kind of plague knowledge was available during the early age of print, and why did it take the form it did?
It would seem to us today that the Black Death must have presented the medical practitioners of that time with an unsolvable riddle, as what was for them a novel disease spread so quickly, so widely, and killed so many. In fact, the university-educated physicians of the 14th century were able to provide what was for them a satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. Over the course of the following centuries, as plague grew to become a familiar, recurring threat, these explanations circulated in the form of plague tracts; a stable genre which provided the reader with both theoretical explanation and practical advice.
This thesis examines a corpus of plague tracts from the early age of print, when Gutenberg’s invention introduced new actors into the webs of knowledge production and circulation in the form of printers. It asks why these texts contain the elements they do, arguing that the plague tract genre is in fact a composite one, consisting of three sub-genres (the tractatus, regimen and consilium) drawing on different aspects of the learned doctor’s professional knowledge. Which aspects were accentuated and which diminished or removed entirely corresponds to the various needs of authors, printers, and potential buyers. The early printed plague tracts were shaped by a number of concerns and incentives, and as they were published, they would in turn shape the conditions for further publication in the same genre.
By examining a genre of medical writing at a time of transition, this thesis seeks to describe how patterns of thought and patterns of publication together created knowledge practices that carry an especial interest today, as we, too, adjust to new forms of information technology.
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