Lauren Kassell

Lauren Kassell
Education	University of Oxford, Haverford College
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Cambridge
Thesis	Simon Forman's philosophy of medicine: medicine, astrology and alchemy in London, c.1580-1611 (1997)
Website	www.people.hps.cam.ac.uk/index/teaching-officers/kassell

Lauren Kassell (born 30 July 1970)[1] is Professor of History of Science and Medicine at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Since September 2021, she is on leave from Cambridge to serve as the Professor in History of Science at the European University Institute (Florence).[2] She completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford in 1997. She is known for her work on the history of astrology and medicine in early modern England.[3][4]

Kassell directed the Casebooks project to digitise the medical records of the astrologers Simon Forman and Richard Napier, one of the largest sets of early modern medical records.[5] Kassell was the historical consultant for the 2019 video game Astrologaster, based on her work on Simon Forman.[6]

Broadcasts

• BBC Radio 4 In Our Time 'Alchemy' 24 February 2005.
• BBC Radio 4 In Our Time 'Renaissance Astrology' 14 June 2007.
• BBC Radio 4 In Our Time 'The Unicorn' 28 October 2010.

Selected publications

• Reproduction: Antiquity to the Present Day, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2018. (co-editor and contributor)
• Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London: Simon Forman, Astrologer, Alchemist, and Physician. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2005.

References

1. "Kassell, Lauren, 1970-". Library of Congress Name Authority File. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
2. "Profile Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge".
3. Ellie Broughton (26 September 2017). "What It Was Like to Go to the Doctor in 1610". Vice. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
4. Sara Reardon. "Sex-Crazed Astrologer Was a Stellar Records Keeper". Science. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
5. Alison Flood (15 May 2019). "Purges, angels and 'pigeon slippers': methods of Elizabethan quacks finally deciphered". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
6. Todd Martens (9 May 2019). "What to play: 'Astrologaster' gets topical with Shakespearean-era alternative facts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 May 2019.