80 Excavating practical evidence of amber’s use is methodologically difficult. Much of what we know is anecdotal and by its very nature privileges those who “survived” their illness, or those who, believing am- ber to have cured them, shared the good news with others. In Italy, Giuseppe Donzelli (1596—1670) no- ted the story of a Spanish doctor who had survived three years in plague-ridden Ostend by taking a daily dose of amber (Donzelli, 1677: 399—400). In Eng- land, Joseph Browne told the tale of a French pain- ter who managed to preserve himself through pla- gues in Caen, Bordeaux, Paris and London, by wea- ring amulets of amber and eating galangal steeped in vinegar (Brown, 1720: 60). Matthaeus Praetorius (ca. 1635—1704), author of the Deliciae Prussicae oder Preussische Schaubühne in the seventeenth cen- tury, stated that no craſtsman working amber had ever died of the plague (Rice, 2006: 173). And in a tru- ly Lazarian tale of around 1538, doctor Gregor Dun- cker resident of Fischhausen (today Primorsk) recor- ded the instantaneous revival of a patient whose room he ordered to be fumigated with amber (GSta PK, XX HA, Etatsministerium 16a 5, unpaginated). It also, however, naturally favours on those who dismiss amber’s efficacy. When, John Hancocke suf- fered from jaundice and fever, a friend recommended OBJECTIVE THINKING: EARLY MODERN OBJECTS IN AMBER WITH CURATIVE, PRESERVATIVE AND MEDICAL FUNCTIONS RACHEL KING Recipes for pills and potions, powders and pastes abound in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But who, if anyone, followed them? Where is the evidence that such advice was actually heeded? And how did people apply them in reality? is paper looks for evidence on the ground which documents the actual use or desire to use amber in the preservation of health. And it considers objects in amber which harness and exploit, perhaps even amplify amber’s purported medicinal properties. Key words: history of medicine, medicinal gems, Albrecht of Prussia, Reformation, health. that he take yellow amber in cold water and his symp- toms were swiſtly relieved. Reasoning that the amber is unlikely to have been able to take effect so rapidly he simply drank plain water when next afflicted and experienced the same positive results (Hancocke, 1724: 8). And it picks up on bizarre failures: Guy de La Brosse, physician to King Louis XIII of France and creator of the Jardin de Roy, who having contracted dysentery from indulging in too many melons, died despite having his body massaged with amber oil for four days (orndike, 1953: 693 and orndike, 1958: 541). ough there are exceptions, such as Gregor Duncker’s report of his own experiences built up in the course of his long career as a doctor, accounts are largely second hand and they may be exaggera- ted, embellished or even apocryphal. As the examples above highlight, proving amber’s actual employment in medical treatments for the sixteenth century is far from straightforward. Indeed, we might even ask how plausible it actually is to search for physical evidence where the ultimate and expected outcome of many of the recipes is the destruction of the material itself: be that because it is ingested and digested or expelled, or because it is applied in a modified form, perhaps as oil or salves, to the afflicted body? © King Rachel, 2016