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Ross Macfarlane

Ross Macfarlane is the Research Engagement Officer at the Wellcome Library.

  • Ghostly comings and goings in Shakespeare’s plays

    03/05/2016

    Ross MacFarlane goes ghost hunting through the ages in the next of our series of Shakespeare-themed posts. This Victorian engraving captures a key scene in one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Hamlet claims to have seen the ghost of his… Continue reading

  • How Babylonian is the Hippocratic corpus?

    26/02/2016

    The last seminar in the 2015–16 History of Pre-Modern Medicine Seminar Series takes place on Tuesday 1 March. Speaker: Professor Mark Geller (Freie Universität, Berlin) How Babylonian is the Hippocratic corpus? Abstract: The topic of similarities and possible commonalities between Hippocratic and Babylonian… Continue reading

  • Workers operating distilling equipment.

    Materia medica at the grand-ducal court in 16th century Tuscany

    10/02/2016

    The next seminar in the 2015–16 History of Pre-Modern Medicine Seminar Series takes place on Tuesday 16 February. Speaker: Dr Cristina Bellorini (Independent scholar, Milan) Materia medica at the grand-ducal court in 16th century Tuscany Abstract: In Tuscany in the second half… Continue reading

  • Friar in apothecary

    The medicine of the friars in late medieval England

    28/01/2016

    The next seminar in the 2015–16 History of Pre-Modern Medicine Seminar Series takes place on Tuesday 2 February. Speaker: Peter Jones (University of Cambridge) The medicine of the friars in late medieval England Abstract: Compared to occupational groups like physicians, surgeons, barbers, apothecaries and… Continue reading

  • Chinese doctor with woman.

    ‘On heart and liver in Chinese and Tibetan medicine’

    14/01/2016

    The next seminar in the 2015–16 History of Pre-Modern Medicine Seminar Series takes place on Tuesday 19 January. Speaker: Professor Elisabeth Hsu (University of Oxford) On heart and liver in Chinese and Tibetan medicine: a situated history of not wanting to know… Continue reading

  • Image from Fuchs herbal

    History of Pre-Modern Medicine seminar series, Spring 2016

    07/01/2016

    The History of Pre-Modern Medicine seminar series returns this month. The 2015–16 series – organised by a group of historians of medicine based at London universities and hosted by the Wellcome Library – will conclude with four seminars. The series… Continue reading

  • Burger’s Secret: discover an unexpected Conan Doyle story

    26/12/2015

    As legions of Sherlock fans await a visit to Victorian London and an encounter with The Abominable Bride on British television in the New Year, we thought a little-known tale from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would further whet the appetite. Burger’s Secret is a… Continue reading

  • Bearded ladies on display

    26/11/2015

    Bearded ladies have long been one of the most familiar of performers in travelling shows and circuses. Often it was the contrast between their femininity and their wild, masculine appearance – bearded face and hairy body – that attracted an audience.… Continue reading

  • Humanist self-fashioning and ordinary medical practice

    19/11/2015

    The next seminar in the 2015–16 History of Pre-Modern Medicine Seminar Series takes place on Tuesday 24th November. Speaker: Professor Michael Stolberg Humanist self-fashioning and ordinary medical practice. The Bohemian physician Georg Handsch (1529–c. 1578) and his notebooks Abstract: The professional identity of… Continue reading

  • Woman and hanged man.

    Executing magic: the healing power of criminal corpses in European popular culture

    05/11/2015

    The next seminar in the 2015–16 History of Pre-Modern Medicine Seminar Series takes place on Tuesday 10th November. Speaker: Professor Owen Davies Executing magic: the healing power of criminal corpses in European popular culture Abstract: The use of criminal corpses in early modern healing… Continue reading