Volume 40, Issue 3-4, 2013, Pages 399-427
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
Abstract
In Early Modern
Europe court physicians exerted great influence in service to their
royal patrons. These medical practitioners acted as learned conduits,
whose knowledge of natural philosophy, which often included occult
theories of healing, natural magic and astrology, was able to serve the
broad interests of their patrons. Thus, in addition to being charged
with maintaining the health of a ruler, physicians were often exploited
by monarchs seeking to enhance the general health of their body politic.
This case study of the German physician Andreas Engelhardt examines his
decade-long service in Moscow between 1656 and 1666 at the court of
Aleksei Mikhailovich. This study of Engelhardt's role at court at a time
of increased Western influence in Muscovy aims to reveal how the tsar
sought to utilize the learning of his German physician in a variety
ofways. Engelhardt not only administered Western medical remedies,
including the use of unicorn horns, to the royal family, but was also
instructed to ascertain whether various Russian and Siberian folk
remedies possessed beneficent qualities. This process of legitimization
and containment of medical knowledge coincided with an attempt to
suppress the authority of folk healers, thereby reflecting the
autocratic nature of Aleksei Mikhailovich's reign. Furthermore, this
article demonstrates that the tsar drew on Engelhardt's supposed
expertise in astrology and divination in order to know how Muscovy would
be affected by the appearance of a comet in the winter of 1664-1665. ©
2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.
Author keywords
Aleksei Mikhailovich; Andreas Engelhardt; astrology;
folk remedies; medicine; Natural magic; Russian history; tsarist
authority; unicorn horn