Moulton, Thomas

Little is known about Thomas Moulton (fl. 1530s), a Dominican friar. He would have faded into obscurity had he not published a small octavo treatise in England on the maintenance of health, which became one of the best-selling medical books of the Tudor period (Slack 1979). Entitled The myrrour or glasse of helth (c.1531), the book advertises itself as a manual to help avoid the pestilence, but the bulk of its pages focus on remedies for various physical ailments. It is among the earliest printed books in English on medical issues (O'Malley 1968), and its popularity reflected a growing appetite among readers for practical advice about the preservation of the body. Though it includes references to ancient and medieval medical authorities, such as Hippocrates and Avicenna, as well as discussion of humoral qualities like heat, cold, dryness, and wetness, its account of illness draws largely on astrology and religion. Such an eclectic approach to health and healing was common in this period (Siraisi 1990), and it probably contributed to the book's success.