John Hall, Master of Physicke: A Casebook from Shakespeare''s Stratford

This is the first complete edition and English translation of John Halls Little Book of Cures, a fascinating medical casebook composed in Latin around 16345. John Hall (15751635) was Shakespeares son-in-law (Hall married Susanna Shakespeare in 1607), and based his medical practice in Stratford-upon-Avon. Readers have never before had access to a complete English translation of John Halls casebook, which contains fascinating details about his treatment of patients in and around Stratford.

Until Wellss edition, our knowledge of Hall and his practice has had to rely only on a partial, seventeenth-century edition (produced by James Cooke in 1657 and 1679, and re-printed with annotation by Joan Lane as recently as 1996). Cookes edition significantly misrepresents Hall by abridging his manuscript (Cooke removed Halls conversations with his patients), by errors of translation, and by combining Halls work with examples from Cookes own medical practice.