The Malleable Body - (Social Histories of Medicine) by Heidi Hausse

About the Book

This invaluable study reveals how practices for treating the loss of limbs in early modern Germany transformed western medicine.

Book Synopsis

This book uses amputation and prostheses to tell a new story about medicine and embodied knowledge-making in early modern Europe. It draws on the writings of craft surgeons and learned physicians to follow the heated debates that arose from changing practices of removing limbs, uncovering tense moments in which decisions to operate were made. Importantly, it teases out surgeons' ideas about the body embedded in their technical instructions. This unique study also explores the material culture of mechanical hands that amputees commissioned locksmiths, clockmakers, and other artisans to create, revealing their roles in developing a new prosthetic technology. Over two centuries of surgical and artisanal interventions emerged a growing perception, fundamental to biomedicine today, that humans could alter the body - that it was malleable.

From the Back Cover

The malleable body uses amputation and prostheses to tell a new story about medicine in early modern Europe. Drawing on surgical treatises and artifacts from the Holy Roman Empire, it reveals how the practices of surgeons, amputees, and artisans to treat the loss of limbs gradually changed ideas about manipulating the body's form.

The expansion of gunpowder warfare in the sixteenth century caused injuries that required amputation on an unprecedented scale, pushing traditional, non-invasive medical practices to breaking point and sparking surgical debates that grew into the seventeenth century. This book examines the tense moments in which surgeons, patients, families, and friends decided to operate and the complications of "phantom limbs" that could follow. It also uncovers surgeons' visions of the body embedded in their technical instructions, exploring a form of practical knowledge-making fused with extreme human experiences.

But surgeons were not the only ones experimenting: amputees took inspiration from art and craft to manage new body shapes and shape the perceptions of others. Their efforts drew clockmakers, locksmiths, and woodworkers into the development of a new prosthetic technology that influenced surgeons' discussions. Two centuries of surgical and artisanal interventions forged a growing perception, fundamental to biomedicine today, that human beings could alter the body--that it was malleable.

Review Quotes

'This is an absorbing book that excavates the craft-world of early modern surgeons as practitioners engaged with new technologies of the body... a captivating tale of how experiences born in trauma were crafted with characteristic renaissance artistry and ingenuity into a new aesthetic of the malleable body that now lies at the very heart of modern biomedicine.'
Society for Renaissance Studies Book Prize 2024 (shortlistee)

'Overall, Hausse has offered a thoughtful and stimulating contribution that will shape the history of early modern surgery for years to come and appeal to readers interested in social histories of medicine as well as histories of disability, material culture, and craft and artisanship.'
Social History of Medicine

'Hausse's book is an essential read for scholars of the history of medicine, early modern disability studies, cultural history, and the history of technology. It makes valuable sources accessible and provides thoughtful discussions using material and visual evidence as well as translations of vernacular German sources.'
H-Disability

About the Author