Early modern Russians preferred one method of treating the sick above all others: prescribing drugs. The Moscow court sourced pharmaceuticals from Asia, Africa, Western Europe, and the Americas, in addition to its own sprawling empire, to heal its ailing tsars. Mixing Medicines explores the dynamic and complex world of early modern Russian medical drugs, from its enthusiasm for newly imported American botanicals to its disgust at Western European medicines made from human corpses. Clare Griffin draws from detailed apothecary records to shed light on the early modern Russian Empire’s role in the global trade in medical drugs. Chapters follow the trade and use of medical ingredients through networks that linked Moscow to Western Europe, Asia, and the Americas; the transformation of natural objects, such as botanicals and chemicals, into medicines; the documentation and translation of medical knowledge; and Western European influence on Russian medical practices. Looking beyond practitioners, texts, and ideas to consider how materials of medicine were used by one of the early modern world’s major empires provides a novel account of the global history of early modern medicine. Mixing Medicines offers unique insight into how the dramatic reshaping of global trade touched the day-to-day lives of the people living in early modern Russia.

Contents

• [Dedication]
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
  • MATERIA MEDICA AS MATERIAL CULTURE
  • DOCTORING TRADITIONS AND THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
  • THE QUESTION OF GLOBALIZATION
  • MUSCOVITE GLOBAL SCIENCE
• 1. The Importance of Lekarstva
  • FIRST, DO NO HARM
  • PROTECTING THE TSAR
  • INTERNAL AFFAIRS
  • POLICING THE MARKETPLACE
  • MISSION CREEP
  • CONCLUSION
• 2. Muscovy’s Botanical World
  • TRANSLATING THE GARDEN
  • PRESCRIBING THE GARDEN
  • THE OLD BOTANICAL WORLD
  • THE FOURTH PART OF THE WORLD
  • EVERYDAY AMERICANA
  • CONCLUSION
• 3. Selling the Chemical Universe
  • PARACELSIAN APOLOGIA
  • CHEMICAL ABSENCES
  • CHEMICAL MEDICINE RISING
  • THE PADUA QUESTION
  • FOLLOWING THE DOCTORS
  • CONCLUSION
• 4. The Problems of the Flesh
  • THE MUSCOVITE BODY
  • PROBLEMATIC CORPSES
  • EVIL SNAKES
  • THERIAC REHABILITATED
  • MUMIA RETURNS
  • CONCLUSION
• 5. The New Textual Authorities
  • AUTHORSHIP AND INTERTEXTUALITY
  • AUTHENTICATING UNICORN HORN
  • LEGISLATING THE MARKET
  • THE LETTERS OF THE LAW
  • PRINTING ADVICE
  • CONCLUSION
• Conclusion
• Appendix One. Ingredients in the Aptechnaia izba prescriptions from 1581–1582
• Appendix Two. Ingredients in Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich’s prescriptions from April–June 1645
• Notes
• Bibliography

Legal deposit third quarter 2022

Bibliothèque nationale du Québec

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Mixing medicines : the global drug trade and early modern Russia / Clare Griffin.

Names: Griffin, Clare, author.

Series: Intoxicating histories ; 4.

Description: Series statement: Intoxicating histories ; 4 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2022019906x | Canadiana (ebook) 20220199108 | isbn 9780228011941 (paper) | ISBN 9780228011934 (cloth) | isbn 9780228012832 (epdf) | isbn 9780228012849 (epub) | isbn 9780228014768 (oa)

Subjects: LCSH: Materia medica—Russia—History. | LCSH: Drugs—Russia—History.

Classification: lcc rs177.r9 g75 2022 | ddc 615.3/210947—dc23

This book was typeset by True to Type in 11.5/14 Arno Pro