Following on from other volumes in Ashgate's History of Medicine in Context series, this new collection sets out to explore the peregrinatio medica – the travels of prospective medical students to university destinations across Europe. It is richly detailed and the scope of its component methodologies impressive, managing to balance individual case studies with broader contextual discussions. Overall, the book argues that travel to foreign universities by medical students increased throughout the early modern period, and was influenced by a range of factors from economic prosperity to religious affiliation. Other central themes of the book include the fortunes of medical universities, including Paris, Leiden, Montpellier and Göttingen, which became successively popular and increased in wealth and prestige as a result.

The book is arranged thematically into three parts, the first addressing questions of the social factors underpinning the peregrinatio. Laurence Brockliss provides a useful comparative overview of the rise of medical training institutions across Europe, linked especially to the growth of state capitals. Hilde de Ridder Symoens notes the growing numbers of travelling medical students during the sixteenth century and the increasingly common practice of studying at multiple centres. Symoens's essay is particularly insightful on factors contributing to the successive popularity of different universities, such as Leiden and Paris, but also usefully sheds some light on the often neglected question of Jewish medical education in the early modern period.

The second part moves to the motivations governing choices of destination for prospective trainee physicians. Mário Séergio Farelo, in a study of Portuguese medical students, makes the interesting point out that the peregrinatio did not necessarily involve far-flung destinations. The presence of a university in nearby Salamanca, together with the inherent costs involved in travel, meant that prestige and curricula were not necessarily paramount considerations. Farelo also explores the effects of the persecution of the Jews upon the medical demographic of Portugal. Ole Peter Grell's essay on Danish medical students highlights the vagaries of university reputations linked to prominent or famous practitioner–professors and the often swift decline in popularity on their death or relocation. More broadly, several essays highlight the edifying role of the peregrinatio itself, which allowed returning students to adopt, in Catrien Santing's words, a ‘man of the world’ persona to attract patients.

Part III discusses the destination universities themselves and it is here, for this reviewer, that the book is at its best. Looking overall at themes of the rise and decline of medical faculties across Europe, the book takes on broader conceptual debates. Helen Dingwall's chapter on the rise and fall of the Edinburgh medical faculty is useful in shifting the emphasis from the supply of education to its demand, highlighting the role of medical students as consumers. Dingwall notes the institutional context of anatomy and surgery in Edinburgh, through bodies such as the Incorporation of Surgeons and Royal College of Surgeons. Cynthia Klestinec's (usefully illustrated) discussion of medical education in Padua fuses discussions of the broader success and appeal of Padua with wider analysis of the growing importance of anatomy and dissection in medical education. Klestinec charts the often intense competition, even within individual universities, between rival professors to build reputations as anatomists. Toby Gelfand keeps to the theme of dissection, exploring the changing medical reputation of Paris through the eighteenth century. Arguing that the Parisian reputation for medical excellence declined over the course of the century, Gelfand's essay covers themes from surgical techniques and facilities to the experiences of individual students. Rita Knoeff offers an interesting and potentially important new perspective on the oft-covered subjects of Herman Boerhaave and Leiden, suggesting that Boerhaave's reputation for clinical excellence has been overplayed, although his methods of teaching were innovative and served to attract students.

In fact, the concept of ‘excellence’ itself is addressed by several of the essays here. Gelfand cautions against uncritical use of the term, arguing that the criteria on which excellence was judged shifted both temporally and contextually. Elizabeth Williams's essay on the medical faculty in Montpellier raises a similar issue (as indeed does Hubert Steinke's study of Göttingen), pointing out that ‘excellence’ by reputation was not necessarily always the prime motivator for students when choosing their destinations. In the case of Montpellier, for example, the comparatively low cost of study worked strongly in its favour.

The breadth and scope of the research throughout the work is truly impressive, and it is pleasing to note that the spread of essays is truly pan-European, with no one area especially privileged. In some ways, though, this might also be its biggest weakness as its whistle-stop tour of Europe can leave the reader a little battered by the sheer weight of detail. More care in production would also have paid dividends; alongside the odd excusable typo were more frustrating errors such as a different image to that captioned in Catrien Santing's otherwise excellent essay about Pieter van Foreest. Nevertheless, these are relatively small gripes, and this work will doubtless make a strong contribution not only to the increasing historiography of medical education in the early modern period, but to the history of European medicine more generally.