Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences Advance Access first published online on March 18, 2009
This version published online on April 1, 2009
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrp005
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Honor, Brotherhood, and the Corporate Ethos of London's Barber-Surgeons' Company, 1570–1640
Correspondence: * Department of History, Art History, and Philosophy, Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60605. Email: cchamberland{at}roosevelt.edu.
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Abstract |
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As the largest and most civically active body of medical practitioners in the late Tudor and early Stuart period, surgeons played a vital role in London's urban landscape, but remained precariously vulnerable to abasement due to the regular contact with death and disease necessitated by their work. Based on an analysis of guild records, printed surgical manuals, and conduct literature, this study explores the emergent corporate ethos of London's Barber-Surgeons' Company and addresses the identity formation of surgeons in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries. By implementing codes of conduct and uniform standards of practice, punishing transgressions of propriety, and developing legislation to limit the activities of unlicensed and foreign practitioners, Company officers ardently sought social and occupational legitimacy within a milieu characterized by a tremendous emphasis on status and hierarchy. Rooted in methodology drawn from the social history of medicine and cultural anthropology, this study argues that in response to the persistent stigma associated with their work and London's increasingly prevalent culture of credit, surgeons, like other artisanal groups, sought to enhance their social legitimacy and occupational respectability by manipulating contemporary social rituals, reinforcing the honorable associations of their work, and preserving the veneer of brotherhood and camaraderie.
Key Words: barber-surgeons • surgery • livery companies • honor • civic culture • London
I wish to thank Deborah Harkness, Michele Clouse, and Joan Cadden for their invaluable guidance with this project. I also wish to thank two anonymous referees for their insightful comments and invaluable critiques. This work was supported by grants from Roosevelt University, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
Footnote 98 and a citation on p. 31, para. 2 have been updated.