This chapter discusses the prevailing ideas and responses to the pressing problems that diseased paupers presented to European communities over the long early modern period. It focuses on how medical experts depicted the bodies of the poor within their discussions of contagious disease, and makes the case that continuity offers a more useful framework than change for understanding this issue over the course of the period. The chapter argues that early modern doctors constructed the bodies of the poor as uniquely biohazardous. We have heard the concerns of Venetian authorities about the 'refuse and odor' of the immigrant poor. However, by the last quarter of the sixteenth century he detects a clear shift as plague became a disease 'almost exclusively of the poor'. John Henderson supports this view, while Brian Pullan proclaimed that by 1577 it was 'axiomatic' that plague was primarily a disease of the poor.
...MoreBook David Hitchcock; Julia McClure (2020) The Routledge History of Poverty, c.1450-1800.
Similar Citations
Book
Kevin Siena;
(2019)
Rotten Bodies: Class and Contagion in Eighteenth-Century Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB122911120/)
Article
Hammond, Mitchell Lewis;
(2011)
Medical Examination and Poor Relief in Early Modern Germany
(/isis/citation/CBB001210673/)
Chapter
John Emrys Morgan;
(2020)
Poverty and environment in early modern England
(/isis/citation/CBB382563692/)
Book
David Hitchcock;
Julia McClure;
(2020)
The Routledge History of Poverty, c.1450-1800
(/isis/citation/CBB935872202/)
Book
Harrison, Mark;
(2012)
Contagion: How Commerce Has Spread Disease
(/isis/citation/CBB001210281/)
Article
Cook, Harold J.;
(2011)
Markets and Cultures: Medical Specifics and the Reconfiguration of the Body in Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB001200553/)
Chapter
Turner, David M.;
(2013)
Disability Humor and the Meanings of Impairment in Early Modern England
(/isis/citation/CBB001201695/)
Article
Stolberg, Michael;
(2012)
“Abhorreas Pinguedinem”: Fat and Obesity in Early Modern Medicine (c. 1500--1750)
(/isis/citation/CBB001221620/)
Thesis
Wolford, Kathryn;
(2012)
Infective Discourse: Printed Debates Concerning the Spread of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England
(/isis/citation/CBB001567364/)
Book
Hurren, Elizabeth T.;
(2012)
Dying for Victorian Medicine: English Anatomy and Its Trade in the Dead Poor, c. 1834--1929
(/isis/citation/CBB001251022/)
Book
Maria Paola Zanoboni;
(2020)
La vita al tempo della peste. Misure restrittive, quarantena, crisi economica
(/isis/citation/CBB068961007/)
Book
Giorgio Giulio Santonocito;
(2022)
Storia del diritto alla salute
(/isis/citation/CBB510089251/)
Article
Lucey, Donnacha Seán;
(2014)
“These Schemes Will Win for Themselves the Confidence of the People”: Irish Independence, Poor Law Reform and Hospital Provision
(/isis/citation/CBB001320607/)
Book
Nükhet Varlik;
(2015)
Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World: The Ottoman Experience, 1347-1600
(/isis/citation/CBB948772983/)
Book
Francesco Bianchi;
Giovanni Silvano;
(2020)
Saggi di storia della salute. Medicina, ospedali e cura fra medioevo ed età contemporanea
(/isis/citation/CBB840139278/)
Article
Victoria Pitts-Taylor;
(2019)
Neurobiologically Poor? Brain Phenotypes, Inequality, and Biosocial Determinism
(/isis/citation/CBB381754775/)
Book
David Gentilcore;
(2015)
Food and Health in Early Modern Europe: Diet, Medicine and Society, 1450-1800
(/isis/citation/CBB439265156/)
Article
Stephens, Rhiannon;
(2012)
Birthing Wealth? Motherhood and Poverty in East-Central Uganda, c.700--1900
(/isis/citation/CBB001200331/)
Book
Elisa Novi Chavarria;
(2020)
Accogliere e curare. Ospedali e culture delle nazioni nella Monarchia ispanica (secc. XVI-XVII)
(/isis/citation/CBB491582261/)
Book
Wray, Matt;
(2006)
Not Quite White: White Trash and the Boundaries of Whiteness
(/isis/citation/CBB001021028/)
Be the first to comment!