Prf Ole Grell

Professional biography

Educated in Denmark I hold a doctorate from the European University Institute in Florence (1983). I joined the History Department of the Open University in 1999 after nearly 15 years at the University of Cambridge. I am Professor of Early Modern History and was Director of the Renaissance and Early Modern Research Group at the OU from 2001 to 2008.

Research interests

I am primarily interested in European social and cultural history in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I work on early modern European Calvinism, Anglo-Dutch relations, and the Reformation of northern Europe. I retain a strong interest in early modern history of medicine, especially medicine and religion, health care, and the significance of natural philosophy for early modern medicine. I am a General Editor of the Series: History of Medicine in Context, published by Ashgate.

Select Publications:

The World of Worm: Physician, Professor, Antiquarian, and Collector, 1588-1654, Routledge, London & New York 2022

Brethren in Christ. A Calvinist Network in reformation Europe, Cambridge University Press, August 2011.

Centres of Medical Excellence? Medical travel and medical education in Europe 1500-1789, eds. O.P.Grell et al., Ashgate, Aldershot 2010.

The Impact of the European Reformation: Princes, Clergy and People, eds. O. P. Grell and B. Heal, Ashgate, Aldershot 2008.

Medicine and Religion in Enlightenment Europe, eds. O P. Grell and A. Cunningham, Ashgate, Aldershot 2007.

Health Care and Poor Relief in 18th and 19th–century Southern Europe, eds. O. P. Grell et al., Ashgate, Aldershot 2005.

Health Care and Poor Relief in 18th and 19th–century Northern Europe, eds. O. P. Grell et al., Ashgate, Aldershot 2002.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Religion, War, Famine and Death in Reformation Europe, co-written with A. Cunningham, Cambridge University Press 2000, 2001, and 2002.

Toleration in Enlightenment Europe, eds. O. P. Grell and Roy Porter, Cambridge University Press 2000.

Paracelsus. The Man and his Reputation, his Ideas and their Transformations, ed. O P. Grell, Brill, Leiden 1998.

Teaching interests

I have contributed to a wide range of modules from Level 1 to 3 (for example A200: Exploring History: Medieval to Modern 1400-1900; A218: Medicine and Society in Europe, 1500-1930; and A326: Empire) to the history MA which I chaired through production. I am currently chairing A218 and am a course team member of A200 which I have previously chaired.