The Fats of Life in the Early Modern World, 1500-1750: Matter in Multispecies Medicine

This project is the first to examine the transformative impact of plant and animal fats within early modern medicine c. 1500-1750. In this period, fats became vital ingredients in a wide range of medical therapies, from healing wounds and burns to treating digestive issues and nervous disorders. My research will trace the introduction and adaptation of new fats (such as whale and palm oil) within European medicine as a result of colonial encounters and burgeoning global trade networks. I will reconstruct a global pharmacopeia of fats which, through distillation and as emollients, binders and emulsifiers, enabled the development of new remedies in a growing medical marketplace. The project will produce a groundbreaking, earlier history of ‘multispecies medicine’ in which health is understood to be interdependent with nonhuman life. By uncovering the centrality of plant, animal and human fats for the treatment of animal and human bodies, this research significantly reshapes our understanding of early modern medicine, revealing its interspecies dependencies. I will combine the analysis of textual sources in English, German and Dutch with innovative remaking methodologies to investigate how the properties of different fats determined their medicinal uses, thus pioneering a matter-centred, ‘farm to table’ approach to medical therapeutics.