It is difficult to divide the continuum of ‘early modernity’ into discrete units. On the level of politics, the end of the Thirty Years War and the English Civil War doubtlessly mark breaks in European history; artistic and intellectual currents, however, only undergo gradual change in the Late Baroque period. The age of orthodoxy in theology and science is only partially dissolved by the Enlightenment over the course of the seventeenth century, with traditional dogma retaining some of its primacy over experimental science. This fluid transition is also characteristic of the realm of medicine. On the one hand, anatomical dissection and clinical observation are given greater attention; on the other, Galenic physiology and dietetics continue to be taught and accepted far into the latter seventeenth century, and it is only around 1750 that bedside teaching is widely recognized as progressive and heuristically fruitful. Nonetheless, around 1650 medicine begins to view old age in such a different way that it seems proper to speak of a clear break. From the point of view of form, a shift takes place in preferred textual genre as well as in the provenance of authors. In the first half of the seventeenth century, many gerocomies are still being written, some of them by practising physicians. After 1650, however, the field is dominated by the university writings of professors and students.