Customer Reviews

A Small Moment of Great Illumination: Searching for Valentine Greatrakes, The Master Healer

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Who was Valentine Greatrakes? And should we even care? A footnote in an historical article lead the author of `A Small Moment of Great Illumination' on a decade-long search to find out. Greatrakes was a 17th-century Irish nobleman who appeared to have the power to heal with his hands alone--but being neither a member of the clergy, nor a King, his use of this power (sometimes effective, sometimes not) made him a radical, dangerously near the boundaries of clergy and royalty that his station (high as it was) did not permit. His healing powers made him especially suspect in Restoration England and Ireland, when tensions ran high between royalists and regicides, Protestants and Catholics. Nevertheless, Greatrakes' apparent ability to heal so many made him popular as well as infamous. Many denounced him as a quack, while others of high authority (no less than Robert Boyle) attested to the efficacy of his abilities.

This was the Greatrakes uncovered by the author of `Small Moment,' and the story is made more interesting for being interwoven with narratives of the author's research trips to England, Ireland and even Scotland--following in Greatrakes' footsteps. The tale takes us back and forth between the 17th and 20th centuries, in and out of libraries, archives, castles and pubs. The length of the narrative is just right--the author knows when to stop one section and switch to another (in many cases, had he lingered a minute longer we'd be bored).

This is a history of a history, a diary of historical research and the story of the research subject itself. It is made more readable by the fact that the author is an amateur (he was supported in his research and travels by a friend who is a professional historian). But `Small Moment' does not suffer because of it--the writing is good and the historical recreation appears to be solid. And while most may no longer care just who Valentine Greatrakes was, the exercise of rediscovering him--and the author's obsession with finding an original copy of ones of Greatrakes' books--brings to the fore the excitement of historical research for its own sake.

Part travelogue, part detective story, part comedy -- it's a quest. This is the story of the author's quest to know more about a footnote. The footnote was in a history of medicine he was reading almost twenty years ago. The footnote talked about one Valentine Greatrakes, an Irish master healer of the mid 1600's. Herein is the search. Through libraries, antiquarian booksellers, across England and Ireland - I suspect in not just a few pubs along the way.

Oh yeah! They were looking for a copy of Greatrakes diary. They went to a dowser who told them it was in a trunk in Bathgate, Scotland. Off to Scotland. Can you imagine going up to a lady in her house saying, 'we have reason to believe that a rare book we're looking for is in a trunk in your attic.' ... Here come the people wearing the white clothes looking for you. They have this hotel where the walls have padding on them so you won't hurt yourself.

A Delightful read.