The last several years have witnessed a renewed interest in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European botany among historians who have begun to analyze the importance of plants for both the economic expansion of Portugal, Holland, France, and England and the success of European colonial expansion. One topic that remains unexplored is whether systematic attempts were made in this period to introduce into Europe new contraceptives and abortifacients gathered from cultures around the globe. Historians of medicine and botany have tended to assume either that little was known about fertility control before the eighteenth century or that pre-modern methods were ineffective """"""""folk"""""""" superstitions. Evidence suggests, however, that at one time Europeans enjoyed a rich knowledge of contraceptives and abortifacients. In this project the Principal Investigator will examine the extent European knowledge was enhanced with new methods from abroad. The significance of this study is in focussing on what seems to have been a missed opportunity in the early modern period to expand European knowledge of fertility control: neither academic medical doctors nor academic medical botanists took an interest in expanding Europe's anti-fertility pharmacopoeia. The goal of this project is to produce a book, tentatively entitled, Fertility Control in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century European Medical Botany aimed at fostering critical thinking concerning research in this area today.
