Physical Pain in Early Modern Europe: Texts, Signs, and Emotions (Joint session with HSMT/NOTCOM ERC Project based at the Maison Francaise)
It is a common belief that early modern physicians did not refer to their patients’ physical pain. In fact, they frequently describe it as “unbearable” or “inexpressible.” They manifestly seek to alleviate the pain through the use of so-called “anodyne” remedies. Moreover, their writings attest to the depth of their reflections on the signs and expression of physical pain. Admittedly, the therapeutic means then available to physicians were far from those we have known since the development of anaesthetics and analgesics in the second half of the 19th century. Nevertheless, it is crucial to distinguish between this teleological perspective on therapeutic inefficacy and the interest in the issue of physical pain in Early Modern Europe.
In this presentation, we will draw on the results of our historical investigation into physical pain in medical and private texts of the 16th and 17th centuries, with a particular focus on the issue of pain expression. This will allow us to discuss a periodization put forward by certain historians of emotions and sensibilities, notably Alain Corbin, who argue that the emergence of a modern sensitivity to pain, i.e. a lesser tolerance of pain, can be dated to the second half of the 18th century.

Raphaële Andrault is researcher at the CNRS, based at the Institut d’histoire des representations et des idées dans les modernités (IHRIM UMR 5317) at the ENS de Lyon. She works mainly on the mind-body problem in Early Modern Philosophy and Early Life Sciences and Medicine. She is the author of La vie selon la raison. Physiologie et métaphysique chez Spinoza et Leibniz (Champion, 2014) and La raison des corps. Mécanisme et sciences médicales (Vrin, 2016). More recently, she has studied Cartesian conceptions of pain (Le fer ou le feu. Penser la douleur après Descartes, Classiques Garnier, 2024), and supervised with Ariane Bayle the research project “Une archéologie de la douleur, 16e-18e siècles”.

Ariane Bayle is Professor of Comparative Literature at Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 and a member of IHRIM. She studies the relationship between literature and medicine in the early modern period, and more specifically how the reading and writing practices of physicians and surgeons contributed to the construction and dissemination of knowledge. She edited the anthology Le Siècle des Vérolés. La Renaissance européenne face à la syphilis (ed. Jérôme Millon, 2019). Her current research, as part of an IUF delegation (2022-2027), focuses on the medical case writing in the vernacular in the 16th and 17th centuries. Her next book, Soigner et raconter. Écriture de soi et récit de cure chez Leonardo Fioravanti et Ambroise Paré, will be published by Droz, in the “Seuils de la modernité” collection.
Date: 18 November 2024, 16:00 (Monday, 6th week, Michaelmas 2024)
Venue: Maison Francaise d’Oxford, 2-10 Norham Road, Oxford OX2 6SE
Speakers: Dr Raphaële Andrault (IHRIM-ENS de Lyon), Professor Ariane Bayle (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3; IHRIM)
Organising department: Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology
Part of: Oxford Centre for the History of Science Medicine & Technology (OCHSMT) Seminars and Events
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Belinda Clark