Public Health in Preindustrial Europe: Urban and Rural Practices

Abstract

Recent revisions to the medical history of western Europe between the twelfth and sixteenth century established that public health far predates Euro-American modernity and straddles the urban/rural divide and diverse occupational groups. Like numerous past societies, this civilization too monitored behaviors and manipulated environments in order to improve health outcomes by combining a culturally specific common sense with a prevalent natural-philosophical paradigm, in this case Galenism. The present review explains some of the preventative programs that urban and rural communities in Europe devised at the time, and their scientific and spiritual underpinnings. Beyond disputing these groups’ longstanding reputation for hygienic apathy and ignorance, the broadened historical perspective shows that practicing public health can mean different things in different contexts.