Compiled rather for those which are to use it, then for the learned. The concept of audience in fifteenth and sixteenth century texts on medicine

Abstract

This paper dials with the concept of audience in Middle English and early Modern English text on medicine. For this, I analyse a corpus of texts from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries of the medical register. All the books selected for analysis contain recipe texts for therapeutic purposes, as the corpus used is monogeneric in essence, although titles and short theoretical introductions are also considered. My research focuses on the evaluation of linguistic and non-linguistic cues to mark readership in early scientific literature. By doing this, I will highlight the strategies used to shape knowledge constrained by the variables imposed by the context of situation.