Medicine in Britain, c1500-c1700: The Medical Renaissance and Ideas About the Cause of Disease
The Medical Renaissance describes a period in the history of medicine in Britain, roughly 1500 to 1700, in which some ideas about the causes of disease began to be challenged for the first time in centuries, even though most people's everyday explanations and treatments changed only slowly. The Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius published 'On the Fabric of the Human Body' in 1543, correcting several of Galen's anatomical errors after carrying out his own human dissections. The English physician William Harvey published his discovery of the circulation of the blood in 1628, disproving Galen's belief that the liver continuously made new blood which the body burned up. New printing technology let these ideas spread further and faster than handwritten manuscripts ever could, and the founding of the Royal Society in 1660 encouraged experiment and observation over inherited authority. Even so, belief in the Theory of the Four Humours survived largely intact, and most physicians in Britain still explained everyday illness the same way their medieval predecessors had.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Separate what actually changed (specific anatomical facts, corrected by observation and dissection) from what stayed the same (the everyday explanation of illness as a humoral imbalance) - Renaissance breakthroughs corrected details within Galen's system long before they replaced it.
- Learn Vesalius's contribution precisely: in 1543 he published a detailed, illustrated anatomy text based on his own human dissections, correcting several errors Galen had made from dissecting animals rather than people.
- Learn Harvey's contribution precisely: in 1628 he demonstrated that the heart pumps a fixed amount of blood around the body in a continuous circuit, disproving Galen's idea that the liver constantly manufactures new blood.
- Learn at least two reasons Renaissance discoveries could spread and be tested more than earlier ones: the printing press allowed illustrated books to be copied accurately and cheaply, and the new emphasis on observation and experiment, formalised by the Royal Society from 1660, encouraged physicians to check inherited ideas against the evidence.
- For 'explain one way X was similar to/different from Y' questions, be ready to argue BOTH directions: this period shows real change in anatomical knowledge but strong continuity in the everyday theory of disease and its treatment - pick whichever the question rewards and support it with one named individual and one specific date.
- For 'explain why' questions about this period, treat individuals (Vesalius, Harvey), technology (the printing press) and institutions (the Royal Society) as separate, nameable factors, and explain how each one specifically enabled challenge to older ideas.
- Remember that new anatomical facts did not immediately change treatment: knowing the heart pumped blood in a circuit did not, on its own, give doctors a new explanation for why people fell ill, which is why bloodletting and purging continued.
Worked example
Explain one way in which ideas about the cause of disease in Britain during the Medical Renaissance, c1500-c1700, were similar to ideas in medieval Britain, c1250-c1500.
- Choose a precise similarity rather than a general one: in both periods, most physicians still explained everyday illness using the Theory of the Four Humours.
- Support this with a medieval detail: medieval physicians diagnosed a humoral imbalance and treated it with bloodletting or purging to restore balance.
- Support this with a c1500-c1700 detail: even after Vesalius corrected details of human anatomy in 1543 and Harvey described the circulation of the blood in 1628, most physicians continued to diagnose and treat patients using the same four humours theory, because these discoveries did not by themselves explain what caused illness.
- State the similarity clearly: despite important anatomical discoveries, the underlying theory of disease used in everyday medical practice barely changed between the two periods.
Practice questions
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Q1Who published 'On the Fabric of the Human Body' in 1543, correcting several of Galen's anatomical errors?Show answer
Answer: Andreas Vesalius.
Q2What did William Harvey demonstrate in 1628?Show answer
Answer: That the heart pumps a fixed quantity of blood around the body in a continuous circuit (the circulation of the blood), disproving Galen's idea that the liver constantly makes new blood.
Q3Give one reason the printing press helped spread new medical ideas in this period.Show answer
Answer: It allowed detailed, illustrated texts such as Vesalius's anatomy book to be copied accurately and cheaply, so more physicians and students across Europe could read and check the same evidence.
Q4In what year was the Royal Society founded, and what approach to knowledge did it encourage?Show answer
Answer: 1660; it encouraged experiment and direct observation rather than simply trusting inherited classical authority.
Q5Did most physicians in c1500-c1700 abandon the Theory of the Four Humours because of Vesalius and Harvey's discoveries? Explain your answer in one sentence.Show answer
Answer: No - most physicians continued to diagnose and treat illness using the four humours, because anatomical corrections did not by themselves provide a new explanation of what caused disease.
Q6Why was Galen's authority so difficult to challenge, even in the Medical Renaissance?Show answer
Answer: His ideas had been accepted and taught for over a thousand years and were backed by the Church, so even physicians who found evidence against him were often reluctant to reject his theories completely.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE History exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain one way in which the ideas of William Harvey were different from the ideas of Galen.
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Explain why there was some change in ideas about the cause of disease during the period c1500-c1700.
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