Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents plague texts from the first century of print and interprets their changes in terms of a specifically "German" reform of healing, both spiritual and natural. It explores plague texts from the late Middle Ages in order to understand the effects of vernacularization, under way since 1348, and the effects that print had on the popularization process, under way since 1473. The chapter reveals how dynamic German plague texts were in the decades before the Reformation as authors sought to reach a broader audience and thereby shape ideas about natural and spiritual health within society. It investigates the innovative thought of Johann Vochs, who introduced a new sort of German medical localism in 1507 in order to protect Germans from harmful foreign ideas, medicines, and commercial interests.