From Body to Community: Venereal Disease and Society in Baroque Spain

‘Berco’s study provides an important contribution for any future comparative work. Scholars should benefit from and extend Berco’s innovative use of sources.’

Mona O’Brien, H-Histsex, H-Net Reviews August 2016

‘Berco’s writing style is commendable as it avoids medical jargon…. Despite the subject matter, it was a fun to read suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate student.’

Daniel A. Crew, Renaissance Quarterly vol 70:02:2017

‘A fascinating book that tells the stories of lives that intersected in the Hospital de Santiago.’

John Slater, Isis Journal September 2017

"Berco has produced a very readable book, of interest to those studying the history of Baroque Spain and the history of medicine."

Robert Weston, The University of Western Australia, Parergon 35.1

"This volume significantly enhances our understanding of the pox in early modern Iberia."

Kevin Siena, Trent University, University of Toronto Quarterly, vol 87 3, Summer 2018

‘Berco is to be commended for making such diligent and fruitful use of what are generally quite dry and often tedious records to scour… This book contributes an important perspective for both medical and social historians.’

Kristy Wilson Bowers, Canadian Journal of History vol 51:03:2016

“From Body to Community is a fresh, well-written, and approachable social history of disease, gender, and social relations in early modern Toledo. Berco’s sensitivity and empathy make his writing on the experience of undergoing treatment at a syphilis hospital the most vivid history of syphilis I have read.”

Laura J. McGough, author of 'Gender, Sexuality, and Syphilis in Early Modern Venice'

“Through his thorough reading of the only extant patient admissions book for Toledo’s syphilis hospital, Berco provides an insider’s view of the procedures, policies, and ideologies that shaped syphilitics’ experiences during their internment. One can only be impressed by Berco’s ability to tease every shred of useful information from hospital records that are notoriously difficult to work with and frustratingly limited as a source.”

Michele Clouse, Department of History, Ohio University