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Dear colleagues, *Apologies for cross-posting* Our third seminar in the 2014/15 History of Pre-Modern Medicine series is next Tuesday (11th November) with Dr Laurence Totelin (Cardiff University). Details: ‘Retail Therapy: Selling and buying drugs in the ancient world’ Abstract: Selling and buying drugs, whether simple or compound, in the ancient Greek and Roman world could mean very big business indeed. Recipes for remedies that had been found effective could fetch high prices; pedlars made their fortunes selling miracle cures; merchants devised cunning plans to adulterate ingredients to increase their revenue; and bona fide pharmacologists created means to test the purity of the products they bought or collected. Clearly patients bought more than cures when purchasing some of the most fanciful drugs created in antiquity; they also bought into a certain way of life, and emulated their betters. In this context, is it legitimate to apply to the ancient world concepts taken from modern economics, such as advertising, consumerism, fashion, branding, etc.? In this paper, I will attempt to answer some of these questions by focusing on women as consumers of ancient drugs. We will see that there was no strict division between pharmacology and cosmetology in the ancient world. Medical authors often criticised women for their vanity, yet they included cosmetic recipes in their works. Here, I will study the reasons for this ambivalence, and show that women were significant health consumers. — Please note: our location will be the Wellcome Library, 183 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE. Doors open at 6pm and we'll start the seminar at 6.15pm. More info here: http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2014/11/retail-therapy-selling-and-buying-drugs-in-the-ancient-world/. With best wishes, Ross MacFarlane Research Engagement Officer Wellcome Library Wellcome Trust Gibbs Building 215 Euston Road London NW1 2BE, UK T +44 (0)20 7611 7340 F +44 (0)20 7611 8369 E [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> http://wellcomelibrary.org<http://wellcomelibrary.org/> We are a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests. The Wellcome Trust is a charity registered in England and Wales, no. 210183. Its sole trustee is The Wellcome Trust Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, no. 2711000 (whose registered office is at 215 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK). Follow the Wellcome Library on Twitter and Facebook This message has been scanned for viruses by Websense Hosted Email Security - www.websense.com