What is as fundamental to a society and just as revealing as its habits of food preparation, work, dress, religious belief, and artistic production? Just as essential are its ideas about the body, health and illness. Offering insights, both broad and deep, into the cultures it explores, The History of Medicine series describes medical knowledge, practices, instruments and discoveries from prehistoric times to the present. Each of its 6 volumes presents the social and economic characteristics of the period under discussion, the prevailing state of medical knowledge, and the key figures in medicine. The books are divided into chapters focusing on questions, such as: what caused people to be healthy or unhealthy? What ideas did people have about the causes of illnesses and their treatments? Who provided medical care? How efficacious were the treatments used? Allowing the facts to speak for themselves, these volumes present a lively and informative account of medical beliefs and practices and the many causes behind their change over time. Photographs and illustrations, as well as biography panels, quotation panels and "interesting fact" panels appear throughout each book, further engaging the young reader. In Renaissance Medicine readers will learn about the great influence of the printing press on medical knowledge, how physicians and surgeons were trained, dissections were carried out, and the circulation of the blood was discovered, as well as about the changing status of women in medicine, and many other fascinating things. They also will learn that while the Renaissance was a period of major breakthroughs in the arts and sciences, with a revolution in the world of ideas brought aboutby the printing press and a decline in respect for tradition, the health of people overall nevertheless did not improve. Why this paradox? Because the causes of disease had not yet been understood Presenting the medical achievements and personalities of the Renaissance against a rich historical back-drop, Renaissance Medicine continues the fascinating journey of the "History of Medicine series, which begins with medicine men and herbs in prehistoric times.