Barbara Howard Traister. The Notorious Astrological Physician of London: Works and Days of Simon Forman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. xviii + 250 pp. $30.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-226-81140-6.
Reviewed by Louise Hill Curth (Department of History, University of Exeter)
Published on H-Albion (August, 2002)
This book chronicles the life of Simon Forman (1552-1611), the successful Elizabethan and Jacobean astrological physician, astrologer, and alchemist. In his lifetime, Forman referred to himself as "the astrological physician of Lambeth," while lambasted by many of his contemporaries for being a bawd, a quack, or a poisoner. Ben Jonson compared Forman's ability to seduce women with those of Medea, the mythological enchantress in Epicoene. His reputation suffered even more after his death, when he was falsely linked to the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.
Forman is presented in a somewhat more flattering light in Traisters' book, which is the first major work since A.L. Rowse's Simon Forman: Sex and Society in Shakespeare's Age (1974). As the title suggests, Rowse was particularly interested in Forman's sexual proclivities, as well as his impressions of watching a play by Shakespeare. Traister, on the other hand, shows a fascination with the "more mundane aspects" of Forman's daily life. She also attempts, unsuccessfully, to discuss the significance of the thousands of medical cases recorded by Forman.
It is, of course, impossible to ignore such content in what is the most comprehensive set of surviving early modern medical records in England. As Lauren Kassell's detailed research on Simon Forman has shown (see note [2], below), these unique writings are tremendously important and can be used to provide a greater understanding of astrological medicine and the role it played in early modern England. Unfortunately, Traister, a professor of English, is clearly neither conversant nor fully comfortable with the topic of astrological medicine.
Traister admits that she "had to learn a great deal" about early modern medicine in order to write her book. However, it appears to have been only enough to present a survey of facts, rather than a analysis of the Forman's medical practices. This has resulted in poorly conceptualized chapters about contemporary medical beliefs and practises. If Traister had deviated less from her stated aim to "introduce the content of Forman's manuscript papers to scholars of various disciplines in the hope that they may prove individually useful" (p. xi), this would have been a more successful academic book.
On the other hand, this work does fulfill two of Traister's stated aims. Her many years of careful archival research are clearly evident, and have resulted in an excellent introduction to the content of Forman's papers. In addition, Traister has produced a readable, interesting, and entertaining tableau of London during the age of Shakespeare.
Academics who wish to learn more about early modern astrological medicine, however, should use this book with caution. Traister does not appear to fully understand the workings of astrology or the way in which its role in medical beliefs and practices. There are only limited references to existing scholarship on the history of astrological medicine, or about the current debates about the role of astrology in early modern England.
Traister begins her book with an overview of Forman's manuscript autobiography, which begins with his birth on December 31, 1552. The seminal point of his childhood was his father's death in 1564, which eventually forced Forman to leave school and seek work. His apprenticeship to a Salisbury shopkeeper who sold drugs and medicinal ingredients, among other wares, provided Forman with knowledge that would prove useful in his later life. Relatively little is known about his early adulthood, besides the fact that he briefly studied at Oxford and spent short periods as a schoolmaster, interspersed with brief periods of travel, several imprisonments and sea voyages. In 1592, Forman moved permanently to London where he practiced medicine, astrology, and alchemy.
Forman obtained a license to practice medicine in 1603 from the University of Cambridge, although he never became a member of the London College of Physicians. It must be remembered that early modern physicians were markedly different from their modern counterparts who must follow rigidly defined guidelines in order to gain their legal qualifications. Theoretically, the title should only have been used by members of the College of Physicians. This was an elite institution, with relatively few members who held the legal right to be the only practising doctors in London and within a seven-mile radius of the city. The relatively few male members of the College took up to fourteen years to complete their university education with practical, hands-on training only coming later, either on its own or during an apprenticeship. In today's terms, these people would be said to have learned to be "medical philosophers" rather than physicians.
In fact, the majority of medical practitioners calling themselves physicians had no academic qualifications, and only a minority held any sort of a license. Although the College regularly attempted to prosecute such offenders, surviving source materials suggest that they were rarely successful. Traister makes much of the College's attempts to prosecute Forman for his medical practices. Forman, however, like many of his contemporary "pseudo-physicians" managed to continue attracting and treating patients in the face of the College's investigations, summons, fines, and attempts at imprisonment.
It may be that the level of stigma attached to these practitioners was not as great as it would be today. David Harley has argued that early modern patients were seeking health, rather than a specific type of medical service and that the physician seems to have been a more important consideration than their academic or legal qualifications.[1] According to Forman's casebooks, he primarily practised the same type of orthodox, Galenic/astrological medicine as the majority of his colleagues both within and outside the College of Physicians.
The astrological medicine advocated in seventeenth-century almanacs was firmly entwined with Galenic concepts. Together, they included two main principles: firstly that disease was caused by an imbalance in the qualities and the humours (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood) in the body; secondly, that these imbalances were caused by specific movements in the celestial heavens. Although Traister clearly understands these basic concepts, she exhibits some confusion about the two main divisions within early modern astrological practice. Natural astrology referred to the general characteristics of planetary influence in fields like agriculture and medicine, while judicial astrology represented the attempt to interpret the planets in order to make individual predictions and give advice. There were few critics of natural astrology, while the use of judicial astrology to diagnose diseases, determine treatments, and make prognoses led some to argue that this negated the concept of man's free will. Traister's lack of familiarity with such principles stems both from a shortage of historical training, and from her choice of background reading. Although the biographical section contains a wide range of publications, it fails to include a number of important modern works.[2]
In conclusion, it must be said that although this is not a major piece of academic writing, it does successfully fulfill Traister's goal of introducing Forman and his works to a larger public. It also accomplishes her aim to "piece together the story that his papers offer and to put that story beside those told of the 'demonic' and 'quack' Forman" (p. xvi). That said, readers should take note of Traister's warning that she has "merely scratched the surface of what Forman's papers can reveal" (p. xvii) and should use this book as a starting point, rather than as a definitive study of early modern medicine. As such, it serves as an excellent introduction to the man and his works, and as an inducement to further perusal of his writings.
Notes
[1]. D. Harley, "Rhetoric and the Social Construction of Sickness and Healing," Social History of Medicine 3 (1999): 407-36.
[2]. These include "standard" sources by Bernard Capp, English Almanacs 1500-1899: Astrology and the Popular Press (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979); Allan Chapman, "Astrological Medicine," in Health, Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century, ed. C. Webster (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979); Patrick Curry, Prophecy and Power: Astrology in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1989); Anne Geneva, Astrology and the Seventeenth Century Mind: William Lilly and the Language of the Stars (Manchester, NY: Manchester University Press, 1995); Michael Hunter and Annabel Gregory, eds., An Astrological Diary of the Seventeenth Century: Samuel Jeake of Rye, 1652-1699 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988); and Lauren Kassell's essay "How to Read Simon Forman's Casebooks: Medicine, Astrology and Gender in Elizabethan London," Social History of Medicine 12 (1999): 3-18.
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Citation:
Louise Hill Curth. Review of Traister, Barbara Howard, The Notorious Astrological Physician of London: Works and Days of Simon Forman.
H-Albion, H-Net Reviews.
August, 2002.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6683
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