title: Renaissance plays as a useful source  for the comparison between English and Croatian early modern medicine.
abstract: This paper evaluates the differences between English and Croatian views of early modern medicine  through the respective Renaissance plays. As Renaissance made no particular distinction between  arts and sciences, plays of that time provide a very common source of medical narrative. During  Renaissance both languages produced high literary achievements, which makes them exemplars  among their Germanic and Slavic counterparts, and justifies this comparison, regardless of their  significant differences. One should bear in mind that while England was a unified kingdom, with  London as the major cultural centre, Croatia's division among the neighbouring powers produced  several prominent cultural centres such as Zadar, Šibenik, Split, Hvar, Korčula, and the most important  one, Dubrovnik. One should also bear in mind that the golden age of Croatian Renaissance  plays had finished as early as 1567 with the death of Marin DrŽić, before it even started in England  with the foundation of the first permanent theatrical companies in 1576. Along these lines, this  paper compares their early modern attitudes toward medicine in general and men and women  practitioners in particular. In this respect, it evaluates the influences of the origin, patronage, and  religion of their authors. Special attention is given to William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and Marin  DrŽić (1508-1567) as the exemplars of English and Croatian Renaissance literature.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department for Diagnostic and Intervention Radiology, Clinical Hospital Merkur, Zagreb, Croatia. bruno.atalic@cantab.net
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Atalic
mesh_terms: D017523:Croatia; D004324:Drama / Q000266:history*; D004739:England; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D008513:Medicine in Literature