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4. RHETORIC AND THE WORLD OF SCIENCE IN THE EModE PERIOD<br />

4.5.2.3. Remedy books<br />

Printed remedy books were direct descendants from medieval manuscript recipe<br />

collections. Texts under the label “remedy books” were usually anonymous, their authors<br />

not always being professional physicians (Marttila 2011: 136). The first texts belonging<br />

to this subgenre date from OE, and they were, of course, written in the vernacular<br />

(Taavitsainen 2006: 689). They comprise recipe collections with prognostications and<br />

charms, and other guides for maintaining health, including texts on diet and exercise that<br />

can also be learned writings (Pahta and Taavitsainen 2004: 15). They contain little theory<br />

because they are practically oriented, that is, they mostly list remedies for several<br />

diseases. These books were usually associated with popular medicine and their audience<br />

was quite wide since their low price made them affordable for a range of people,<br />

comprising the social elite, apothecaries and even yeomen and tradesmen, householders<br />

and gentlewomen (Marttila 2010: 107). Regimens and health guides focused on the<br />

keeping of health rather than on the treatment of illness and their intended audience were<br />

the members of the middle and upper levels of society since general people had not<br />

enough money to follow the advice given in these books (Suhr 2010: 111-126). Slack<br />

(1979: 237 in Marttila 2011) claims that remedy books “can scarcely have reached the<br />

illiterate poor, and the extent of their diffusion even among the literate may well be<br />

questioned.” Similarly, Fissel (2007: 111 in Marttila 2011) claims that the audience<br />

mentioned in titles and prologues of remedy books cannot be taken literally. They should<br />

be understood in a rhetorical sense, pointing out that not deep literacy skills were<br />

required.<br />

128

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