Eighteenth-Century Medicine, Health and the Memoirs of Prince I. M. Dolgorukov (1764–1823)
Eighteenth-Century Medicine, Health and the Memoirs of Prince I. M. Dolgorukov (1764–1823)

Summary/Abstract: The recent Covid-19 pandemic has brought renewed attention to issues concerning medicine and health. However, the latter has also animated debates in the past and has characterized the previous periods in diverse ways, becoming an integral part of our “cultural memory” and, consequently, of literature. Ego-documents are particularly interesting because they allow us to reconstruct past medical beliefs and show the influence of the cultural context on the autobiographical prose of a given author. In fact, the purpose of this study is the analysis of the themes of medicine and health in the autobiography Повесть о рождении моем, происхождении и всей жизни (Povest’ o roždenii moem, proishoždenii i vsej žizni) of Prince I. M. Dolgorukov (1764–1823). Not only his opinions and some characteristics of this literary work are highlighted, but also the reasons and purposes of Dolgorukov’s choice to focus attention on the episodes of his life related to health and medicine are presented.

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