• Introduction: Geriatrics Today and Yesterday 1 The Knowledge of the Ancients: Ancient and Medieval Accounts of Old Age and Their Importance for Early Modern Europe 2 Between Elderly Care and Life Extension: Galenic Gerocomies to the mid-Seventeenth Century 3 Old Age in the Early Modern University: The Eclecticism of Medical Concepts after 1650 4 Old Women: The Marginalization of a Majority Conclusion: Proto-Geriatrics between Tradition and Innovation

'provides an impressively knowledgeable and comprehensive assessment of the understanding of old age throughout the early modern period and across Europe.' Jennifer Evans, Early Modern Medicine 'The strength of this book is in its impressive synthesis of a very broad topic and here it makes a very valuable contribution to the already crowded historiography of old age.' British Journal for the History of Science