PHYSICIANS AND THE REFORM OF POPULAR CULTURE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE

The ancient rivalry between the learned physician and the unofficial, popular healer seems to have broken out with particular vindictiveness during the early modem period Emboldened by a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive medical marketplace, charlatans and popular healers challenged traditional medicine in printed tracts and in public performances in the piazzas and market-places. The university-trained physicians responded to the challenge with a barrage of attacks on "popular errors". The "errors of the people" in medicine became emblematic of the credulity and backwardness of popular culture in general. This paper focuses "upon physicians" writings on "popular errors" written between the mid-16(th) century and lite early 18(th) century and analyzes the cultural codes and stereotypes about popular culture that emerged from these writings.