The Fats of Life

Matter in Multispecies Medicine in the Early Modern World

This project investigates the role of animal and plant fats in medicine from 1500 to 1750. Through colonial expansion and global trade, new ‘exotic’ fats, such as whale oil and palm oil, became available on the European market. The Fats of Life documents how these fats enabled the development of new remedies in a rapidly growing and increasingly commercialised healthcare landscape. The research considers both medical treatments for humans and care for animals.

Image: Veterinary procedure or a specific method for administering medicine to a hunting dog (detail). From the manuscript Von der Hirsch Schweins, Hasen, Fuchs vnd Dachs Jagt (on the hunting of deer, pigs, hares, foxes and badgers), ca. 1550–1580, preserved in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden.

The project situates Dutch history firmly in an international context, showing how colonialism, resource extraction, and medical knowledge were intertwined. In doing so, it provides historical insight into contemporary questions regarding the relationship between health, nature, and global inequality.

A major part of the study focuses on the trade in fats via the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Using, among other sources, the VOC archives digitised by the GLOBALISE project, the project traces which fats were traded, in what quantities, and what the consequences were for health and healthcare practices in Europe and beyond.

Whaling in the Arctic Ocean (detail), Abraham Storck, ca. 1654–1708. Three Dutch whalers in the Arctic Ocean among icebergs hunting whales. The ship on the right bears the name De Jonas on the stern. Collection Rijksmuseum.

Attention to Animal Care

The project also maps out an early history of ‘multispecies medicine’, in which health was understood as interconnected with non-human life forms. By highlighting the role of fats in treatments for both humans and animals, this research provides a new perspective on early modern medicine and reveals the interdependencies between species.

Theoretical Research

During this period, animal and plant fats were indispensable ingredients in a wide range of medical treatments, from wound and burn care to remedies for digestive and nervous disorders.

Drawing on archival and printed sources in English, German, and Dutch, the project reconstructs an international ‘pharmacopoeia’ of animal and plant fats. It documents which fats were used, for which ailments, and why.

Pharmaceutical vessels: still life with a man and a dog (detail) by Giovan Domenico Valentino, ca. 1661–1680. Wellcome Collection.

The material properties of fats are central to this analysis: what made a fat suitable as an emollient, binder, or emulsifier? How did scent, texture, or melting point determine its medical use?

Experimental Research

The project also examines how the introduction of new, often ‘exotic’ fats led to experiments by surgeons, apothecaries, and household practitioners.

Der Apotecker by Jost Amman, 1568. A central figure of an apothecary grinding ingredients with a mortar and pestle to prepare medicines. Collection National Library of Medicine.

To make this research tangible, around thirty historical recipes from the sources will be recreated and tested. This experimental approach aligns with projects at the Huygens Institute, such as PRESERVARE and Visualizing the Unknown, in which material reconstruction also plays a central role.