“This fascinating book, by virtue of its focus on early modern Russia, represents an important and significant contribution to the scholarship on globalization and the history of medicine, drugs, and materia medica in the early modern world.” Matthew Crawford, Kent State University and co-editor of Drugs on the Page: Pharmacopoeias and Healing Knowledge in the Early Modern Atlantic World
“By shifting attention to the medicines themselves, Clare Griffin makes a novel contribution to long-standing discussions. Griffin provides new insights on Muscovy’s place in the world and on the functioning of the Apothecary Chancery itself. Mixing Medicines will be equally valuable to specialists in Russian history and specialists in the global history of medicine. The Appendices of the book, which list the ingredients recorded in Russian-language prescriptions, giving English or Latin equivalents and place of origin, constitute a much-needed reference glossary. Scholars of the history of medicine gain insight into premodern Russia, presented in terms of discussion familiar to them.” Social History of Medicine
“In this slim but brilliant work ... Griffin makes a crucial contribution to drug history, Russian history, and the history of globalization. Mixing Medicines shows how the global impacts the local, by showing how imported drugs act on domestic lives, and has resonance today.” *Canadian Journal of Health History *
“Mixing Medicines […] gives important insight into practices of early modern pharmacy, the use of early pharmaceuticals, and the global drug trade as well as drug licensing, with particularly interesting points regarding the Russian Orthodox Church and its prohibition on the use of flesh-based medicine.” CEU Review of Books
“Mixing Medicines is a significant contribution to our understanding of early modern Russian natural knowledge and its place in the global history of science and medicine.” The Russian Review
