alessandra foscati
KU Leuven, Department of Linguistics, Faculty Member
- History of Medicine, Hagiography, Cult of Saints, Medieval Medicine, Canonization Processes, Medieval History, and 12 moreCultural Anthropology, History of Religion, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Women's Studies, Social History, Medical Humanities, Anthropology, History of Science, Medical Anthropology, Natural philosophy, and Renaissance Studiesedit
- https://www.kuleuven.be/wieiswie/en/person/00146117
ORCID number: 0000-0002-8383-6270edit
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The Project "Gynecia: Rodericus a Castro Lusitanus and the ancient medical tradition about gynaecology and embryology" organizes, on March 26th and 27th 2020, at Colégio dos Jesuítas of Universidade da Madeira, the II International... more
The Project "Gynecia: Rodericus a Castro Lusitanus and the ancient medical tradition about gynaecology and embryology" organizes, on March 26th and 27th 2020, at Colégio dos Jesuítas of Universidade da Madeira, the II International Gynecia Conference, dedicated to the theme "Gynaecology and embryology in Ancient, Medieval and Early-Modern Texts". The primary aim of the conference is to address all the possible facets and complexities of this theme, within the context of Western Medicine. Scholars working in an area related to the theme of the project and interested in participating in the Conference are invited to send a proposal. Proposals on Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Medicine and Philosophy are welcome, especially those dealing with-but not limited to-one of the following topics: 1) women and/or children's health; 2) embryology, human and animal generation; 3) pregnancy, (in)fertility, contraception, abortion; 4) monsters and hermaphrodites; 5) materia medica in gynaecological treatises; 6) astrology in medical texts about pregnancy and childbirth; 7) translating texts about women's and children's diseases (challenges, relevance and difficulties); 8) rhetoric and medicine.
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Presentazione del volume: Le meraviglie del parto. Donare la vita tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna, Torino, Einaudi, 2023
Biblioteca Civica di Fermo-Università Politecnica delle Marche
Biblioteca Civica di Fermo-Università Politecnica delle Marche
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Seminario nell'ambito del progetto PRIN 2022: Monsters, Sorceres, and Witches of Northwestern Europe: The Medieval and Early Modern Construction of Otherness in Literature for Popular Audience
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A. Foscati, Le meraviglie del parto. Donare la vita tra Medioevo ed Età moderna, Torino, Einaudi, 2023
https://www.einaudi.it/catalogo-libri/storia/le-meraviglie-del-parto-alessandra-foscati-9788806256708/
https://www.einaudi.it/catalogo-libri/storia/le-meraviglie-del-parto-alessandra-foscati-9788806256708/
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«In nostro vulgare dicuntur lo tac».The Relevance of Latin Sources in Defining French Nosographic Terms. A Case Study The aim of this presentation, without any ambition of a linguistic or etymological investigation, is to... more
«In nostro vulgare dicuntur lo tac».The Relevance of Latin Sources in Defining French Nosographic Terms. A Case Study
The aim of this presentation, without any ambition of a linguistic or etymological investigation, is to demonstrate, by means of a case study, how dictionaries devoted to the medieval French language are not always sufficient to define the meaning, and possible polysemy, of a precise nosographic term as they lack references to Latin sources. The lemma in question is tac (and its linguistic variants).
One of its meanings, as reported in the most influential modern dictionaries, is ‘plague’, especially in the Provençal area, dating back to 1382. In this sense, the DMF entry, deriving from the FEW, refers to this definition, which derive from Pierre Pansier’s Histoire de la langue provençale. A direct examination of this work reveals that the explication is merely an entry («Tac (1382) s.m. peste») included by Pansier in a list of lemmas, but there is an absence of references to sources that should justify such a chosen definition. In all likelihood, the historian had ‘discovered’ the lemma in the Latin Tractatus de pestilencia, still unpublished, written in 1382 by the Provençal physician Raymond Chalin Vinario. However, an analysis of this treatise reveals that the term did not indicate the plague, as we defined it today, but rather a symptom, a cutaneous eruption, sometimes fatal, of various «pestilential diseases». According to the descriptions, yet with the limitations of a retrospective diagnosis, we can interpret the term tac as a symptom of what by our criteria correspond to a number of contagious diseases, including measles and smallpox. Furthermore, an investigation of collections of miracle tales – a typology of Latin texts representing important lexicographical repertoires of the names of the diseases in the vernacular ¬ shows that this term was already in use before 1382 with the same meaning(s) of the Chalin’s treatise. The lemma continued to be used in early modern period to the extent of it being included in François Rabelais’ Gargantua et Pantagruel and Stephanus Blancardus’ Lexicon. In the latter text, it is indicated as a synonym of the Latin expressions «Jonthus, sive Varus». No longer linked to pestilential diseases, it is considered the name to designate any form of cutaneous eruption, including the benign boils of juvenile acne.
If we consider only the French-language medieval sources, we must refer to a long passage from the fifteenth-century anonymous work, the Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, in order to find a description of the disease indicated with the term in question. This is an epidemic event characterized by symptoms that are completely different from those of the Provençal disease(s), and it would have occurred in the year 1414. In the French dictionaries, for reasons that will be explained, errors appear in the dating of this epidemic event, leading to an incorrect assessment of the occurrences of the lemma. In this respect, a significant passage in a Latin memorial describing an epidemic of the same kind, indicated with the vernacular tac and occurring in 1404, is excluded from dictionaries whatsoever.
The aim of this presentation, without any ambition of a linguistic or etymological investigation, is to demonstrate, by means of a case study, how dictionaries devoted to the medieval French language are not always sufficient to define the meaning, and possible polysemy, of a precise nosographic term as they lack references to Latin sources. The lemma in question is tac (and its linguistic variants).
One of its meanings, as reported in the most influential modern dictionaries, is ‘plague’, especially in the Provençal area, dating back to 1382. In this sense, the DMF entry, deriving from the FEW, refers to this definition, which derive from Pierre Pansier’s Histoire de la langue provençale. A direct examination of this work reveals that the explication is merely an entry («Tac (1382) s.m. peste») included by Pansier in a list of lemmas, but there is an absence of references to sources that should justify such a chosen definition. In all likelihood, the historian had ‘discovered’ the lemma in the Latin Tractatus de pestilencia, still unpublished, written in 1382 by the Provençal physician Raymond Chalin Vinario. However, an analysis of this treatise reveals that the term did not indicate the plague, as we defined it today, but rather a symptom, a cutaneous eruption, sometimes fatal, of various «pestilential diseases». According to the descriptions, yet with the limitations of a retrospective diagnosis, we can interpret the term tac as a symptom of what by our criteria correspond to a number of contagious diseases, including measles and smallpox. Furthermore, an investigation of collections of miracle tales – a typology of Latin texts representing important lexicographical repertoires of the names of the diseases in the vernacular ¬ shows that this term was already in use before 1382 with the same meaning(s) of the Chalin’s treatise. The lemma continued to be used in early modern period to the extent of it being included in François Rabelais’ Gargantua et Pantagruel and Stephanus Blancardus’ Lexicon. In the latter text, it is indicated as a synonym of the Latin expressions «Jonthus, sive Varus». No longer linked to pestilential diseases, it is considered the name to designate any form of cutaneous eruption, including the benign boils of juvenile acne.
If we consider only the French-language medieval sources, we must refer to a long passage from the fifteenth-century anonymous work, the Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, in order to find a description of the disease indicated with the term in question. This is an epidemic event characterized by symptoms that are completely different from those of the Provençal disease(s), and it would have occurred in the year 1414. In the French dictionaries, for reasons that will be explained, errors appear in the dating of this epidemic event, leading to an incorrect assessment of the occurrences of the lemma. In this respect, a significant passage in a Latin memorial describing an epidemic of the same kind, indicated with the vernacular tac and occurring in 1404, is excluded from dictionaries whatsoever.
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19/03/2024: presentazione presso la Biblioteca Universitaria del volume: Le Meraviglie del parto. Donare la vita tra Medioevo ed Età moderna. La presentazione sarà preceduta da una visita alla splendida collezione di oggetti riferiti... more
19/03/2024: presentazione presso la Biblioteca Universitaria del volume: Le Meraviglie del parto. Donare la vita tra Medioevo ed Età moderna.
La presentazione sarà preceduta da una visita alla splendida collezione di oggetti riferiti all'ostetricia conservati presso il museo di Palazzo Poggi
La presentazione sarà preceduta da una visita alla splendida collezione di oggetti riferiti all'ostetricia conservati presso il museo di Palazzo Poggi
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Humboldt-Kolleg Veränderung Helsinki 13.-15.3.2024 Veränderung ist ein wesentlicher Teil des Funktionierens des Universums. In der menschlichen Kultur – sowohl in Politik, Technik, Theologie, Ideologie, als auch in Recht, Literatur usw.... more
Humboldt-Kolleg Veränderung
Helsinki 13.-15.3.2024
Veränderung ist ein wesentlicher Teil des Funktionierens des Universums. In der menschlichen Kultur – sowohl in Politik, Technik, Theologie, Ideologie, als auch in Recht, Literatur usw. können Veränderungen Individuen ebenso betreffen wie eine Gruppe (z.B. eine Institution) oder gar eine Gesellschaft. Zeitlich kann ihre Ausdehnung von einer kurzfristigen Entscheidung bis zu langfristigen Folgen reichen. Veränderung kann man als Ergebnis einer einzelnen Aktion, aber auch als Folge kollektiver Entwicklungen beschreiben und erklären. Der Veränderung gegenüber gibt es jedoch fast immer Widerstand, der sich entweder auf blindem Auktoritätsglauben basiert oder als sich auf blindem Auktoritätsglauben basierend präsentiert wird. Das Zweck dieses Humboldt-Kollegs ist die Dynamik der Interaktion von innovatorischen (oder sich als innovatorisch repräsentierenden) Tätigkeiten und der durch diese Tätigkeiten ausgelösten Reaktion zu erörtern.
Helsinki 13.-15.3.2024
Veränderung ist ein wesentlicher Teil des Funktionierens des Universums. In der menschlichen Kultur – sowohl in Politik, Technik, Theologie, Ideologie, als auch in Recht, Literatur usw. können Veränderungen Individuen ebenso betreffen wie eine Gruppe (z.B. eine Institution) oder gar eine Gesellschaft. Zeitlich kann ihre Ausdehnung von einer kurzfristigen Entscheidung bis zu langfristigen Folgen reichen. Veränderung kann man als Ergebnis einer einzelnen Aktion, aber auch als Folge kollektiver Entwicklungen beschreiben und erklären. Der Veränderung gegenüber gibt es jedoch fast immer Widerstand, der sich entweder auf blindem Auktoritätsglauben basiert oder als sich auf blindem Auktoritätsglauben basierend präsentiert wird. Das Zweck dieses Humboldt-Kollegs ist die Dynamik der Interaktion von innovatorischen (oder sich als innovatorisch repräsentierenden) Tätigkeiten und der durch diese Tätigkeiten ausgelösten Reaktion zu erörtern.
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Cantieri dell’agiografia AISSCA, VII edizione
Roma, 24-26 gennaio 2024
Panel :Patologie del seno e guarigioni tra medicina e culto dei santi: uno sguardo di lunga durata dall’antichità alla prima Età moderna
Roma, 24-26 gennaio 2024
Panel :Patologie del seno e guarigioni tra medicina e culto dei santi: uno sguardo di lunga durata dall’antichità alla prima Età moderna
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From the 16th century onwards, a number of texts devoted to embryology and obstetrics-gynecology highlight how physicians and surgeons, tackling with women's difficult deliveries, had to deal with circumstances that were a cause of an... more
From the 16th century onwards, a number of texts devoted to embryology and obstetrics-gynecology highlight how physicians and surgeons, tackling with women's difficult deliveries, had to deal with circumstances that were a cause of an ethical crisis to them. I am referring to the need to perform embryulcia/embryotomy, i.e. the destruction and cutting into pieces of the still-living fetus in uterus, in order to save the mother. We have to consider that the death of the fetus, when still unbaptized, led to the loss of its soul and this was a source of strong disapproval by the Church, which did not, however, take an official position on the embryotomy practice until the 19th century. Therefore the choice of who should be saved between mother and fetus was a matter of the physicians, and they found themselves discordant. Embyotomy, described in various texts of Antiquity, was no longer mentioned in treatises after Late Antiquity. Except for Latin translation of Arabic texts, it returned in consideration in Latin surgical treatises from the 14th onwards, although for almost two centuries it was referred to as a means of extracting only the dead fetus from the uterus. The aim of this paper is to analyze the most relevant references on this operation between the 14th and the 17th century and above all to highlight the different ways of approaching and possibly justifying it ethically, especially in contrast to coeval theological thought, by physicians and surgeons in the Early Modern Period.
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Fully understanding the disease lexicon of the past is quite complex because it warrants an assessment of more interpretative mechanisms than today. To quote Mirko Grmek ‘Diseases don't exist. The sick individual exists... disease is but... more
Fully understanding the disease lexicon of the past is quite complex because it warrants an assessment of more interpretative mechanisms than today. To quote Mirko Grmek ‘Diseases don't exist. The sick individual exists... disease is but a concept, created in a way which is not logically obligatory and exclusive’. This is particularly true of the Middle Ages when vernacular medical lexicon originated, Latin medical language evolved due to the legacy of the Late Antiquity, and the translations of medical texts from Greek to Latin and from Greek to Arabic to Latin coexisted. If naming a disease implies creating a link between res significans (the name of the disease) and res significata (the grouping of signs, symptoms and conceptions connected with a specific disease), this link may differ across historical periods and text genres. Different speakers present at the workshop will address issues related to the constitution of the disease lexicon in the Middle Ages, its originality and the conceivable polysemy of disease names. There will also be a discussion (round table) of how translations and subsequent transcriptions of disease names from one text to another as well as from one language to another have influenced the constitution of the disease lexicon.
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Lecture: Presentation of the project SIDELINE
https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/ling/qlvl/projects/current/sideline/
https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/ling/qlvl/projects/current/sideline/
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Lecture
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Saints were frequently attributed with special therapeutic powers as healers, sometimes explained by historians as elements of folklore. By contrast, the interesting path leading to a specialization – with the disease sometimes even... more
Saints were frequently attributed with special therapeutic powers as healers, sometimes explained by historians as elements of folklore. By contrast, the interesting path leading to a specialization – with the disease sometimes even assuming the name of the saint – is an intrinsic part of the history of cults and their diffusion through the network of shrines. In this respect, special therapeutic powers can be derived from the different thaumaturgical practices and the various depictions of sanctity and the disease itself. As the latter is often interpreted by historiographers using different epistemological criteria from those adopted in the past, the characteristics of the thaumaturgical cult in question can sometimes be misunderstood. The aim of this contribution is to demonstrate the complex nature of the relationship between healing saints and diseases by analyzing a variety of images and textual sources – not only hagiographies – that refer to the Renaissance period.
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A mola is the result of a false pregnancy, mainly described from antiquity onwards as a piece of shapeless meat originating in the womb. It was the subject of various interpretations regarding its aetiology based on various prevalent... more
A mola is the result of a false pregnancy, mainly described from antiquity onwards as a piece of shapeless meat originating in the womb. It was the subject of various interpretations regarding its aetiology based on various prevalent theories in natural philosophy and medicine drawing on the thinking of authorities like Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen and Avicenna. In this way, in the Middle Ages the Hippocratic concept of bad quality male sperm and abundant menstruation led to the interpretation of a mola produced only by women, often through the emission of their "sperm" during nocturnal pollutions. The mola was related to the birth of monstrous forms – fera, bufo, arpa – which in turn were linked, although not necessarily superimposable, to the product of childbirth indicated by many sources such as Frater Lombardorum or Salernitanus, instead seen as the product of superfetation.
The idea of the mola as a product of a blend of male and female sperm, and even superfetation, became dominant in early modern period, while the concept likening it to monstrous childbirth remained.
Starting from these premises, this contribution aims to highlight the different ways of interpreting the mola – including the medical-philosophical theories of reference – in the period between the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. Moreover, we will see how the different interpretations of the aetiology of the mola were significant for judging the woman who "gave birth" to it in ethical terms.
The idea of the mola as a product of a blend of male and female sperm, and even superfetation, became dominant in early modern period, while the concept likening it to monstrous childbirth remained.
Starting from these premises, this contribution aims to highlight the different ways of interpreting the mola – including the medical-philosophical theories of reference – in the period between the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. Moreover, we will see how the different interpretations of the aetiology of the mola were significant for judging the woman who "gave birth" to it in ethical terms.
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Storia del parto e delle strategie per contenerne la pericolosità: dalle immagini alla chirurgia
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Era prassi comune nel Medioevo attribuire il nome di una malattia ad un santo, e l’eponimia era dovuta a ragioni cultuali non sempre facili da indagare. Il fuoco di sant’Antonio, in particolare, si associa allo sviluppo del culto... more
Era prassi comune nel Medioevo attribuire il nome di una malattia ad un santo, e l’eponimia era dovuta a ragioni cultuali non sempre facili da indagare. Il fuoco di sant’Antonio, in particolare, si associa allo sviluppo del culto taumaturgico sviluppatosi nel sud della Francia in relazione alla presenza delle presunte spoglie di sant’Antonio abate, contestualmente alla nascita e diffusione dell’Ordine dei canonici ospedalieri antoniani. È luogo storiografico comune indicare il fuoco di sant’Antonio, nel Medioevo, quale sinonimo di malattia ergotica, dovuta all’ingestione di cereali contaminati da ergot. Malattia che, certamente, diede origine a focolai epidemici nell’altomedioevo. Ciò ha portato spesso a considerare gli ospedali della casa madre e delle precettorie dell’Ordine antoniano prevalentemente quali luoghi di cura dell’ergotismo, anche in assenza di una precisa documentazione d’archivio. Un’analisi di diverse tipologie di fonti medievali e moderne – mediche, letterarie, agiografiche, giuridiche –, in parte inedite, dimostra come non necessariamente il fuoco di sant’Antonio corrispondesse all’ergotismo e quindi come anche l’attitudine terapeutica di tali ospedali e precettorie sia da riconsiderare. La comunicazione è volta a discutere, attraverso la presentazione di varie fonti, il significato attribuito, tra Medioevo ed Età moderna, all’espressione fuoco di sant’Antonio e il ruolo terapeutico associabile alla casa madre dell’Ordine a Saint-Antoine-en-Viennois.
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Ergotisme : du Moyen Âge aux Temps Modernes en Occident. Réflexions sur la maladie due à l’intoxication alimentaire Quand au XVIIIe siècle les médecins français découvrirent l’ergotisme – grave intoxication alimentaire causée par... more
Ergotisme : du Moyen Âge aux Temps Modernes en Occident.
Réflexions sur la maladie due à l’intoxication alimentaire
Quand au XVIIIe siècle les médecins français découvrirent l’ergotisme – grave intoxication alimentaire causée par l’ingestion de l’ergot, champignon parasite des céréales – ils s’appliquèrent à relire les sources hagiographiques et les chroniques du haut Moyen Âge, ainsi que la réécriture de ces chroniques effectuée aux Temps Modernes. Le but était d’identifier les moments où la maladie s’était développée sous forme d’épidémie.
Cette lecture, basée sur une diagnose rétrospective, souvent arbitraire, continua dans le temps à un niveau historiographique. Ceci aboutit à l’idée d’une maladie qui s’associe à la consommation de seigle contaminée, et d’épidémies, circonscrites autour de la France et de l’Allemagne actuelles, caractérisées par des manifestations cliniques à rapprocher respectivement à la gangrène et aux convulsions.
En partant d’une lecture critique des sources médiévales et modernes, la présente étude veut démontrer que la reconstruction historiographique des épidémies est due en grande partie à la répétition de données inexactes. En même temps, en s’appuyant sur les résultats de l’étude de quelques cas d’ergotisme du siècle dernier, analysés selon des critères scientifiques, on veut réfléchir sur le lien entre la consommation alimentaire de seigle et la maladie.
Réflexions sur la maladie due à l’intoxication alimentaire
Quand au XVIIIe siècle les médecins français découvrirent l’ergotisme – grave intoxication alimentaire causée par l’ingestion de l’ergot, champignon parasite des céréales – ils s’appliquèrent à relire les sources hagiographiques et les chroniques du haut Moyen Âge, ainsi que la réécriture de ces chroniques effectuée aux Temps Modernes. Le but était d’identifier les moments où la maladie s’était développée sous forme d’épidémie.
Cette lecture, basée sur une diagnose rétrospective, souvent arbitraire, continua dans le temps à un niveau historiographique. Ceci aboutit à l’idée d’une maladie qui s’associe à la consommation de seigle contaminée, et d’épidémies, circonscrites autour de la France et de l’Allemagne actuelles, caractérisées par des manifestations cliniques à rapprocher respectivement à la gangrène et aux convulsions.
En partant d’une lecture critique des sources médiévales et modernes, la présente étude veut démontrer que la reconstruction historiographique des épidémies est due en grande partie à la répétition de données inexactes. En même temps, en s’appuyant sur les résultats de l’étude de quelques cas d’ergotisme du siècle dernier, analysés selon des critères scientifiques, on veut réfléchir sur le lien entre la consommation alimentaire de seigle et la maladie.
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Discussions are arranged along thematic threads that cover a wide range of research topics, from history of medicine, to anthropology, to the iconography of birth, offering a diachronic perspective of each subject area from late Antiquity... more
Discussions are arranged along thematic threads that cover a wide range of research topics, from history of medicine, to anthropology, to the iconography of birth, offering a diachronic perspective of each subject area from late Antiquity to the modern era. The goal is to encourage the dynamic exchange of knowledge between Italian and international scholars and to compare different approaches and research methodologies.
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Pour l'époque médiévale il n'est pas possible d'affronter l'histoire de la maladie sans tenir compte de la thaumaturgie du saint, qui était peut-être la première personne à laquelle s'adressait le malade en quête de guérison. Les textes... more
Pour l'époque médiévale il n'est pas possible d'affronter l'histoire de la maladie sans tenir compte de la thaumaturgie du saint, qui était peut-être la première personne à laquelle s'adressait le malade en quête de guérison. Les textes hagiographiques, en particulier les procès de canonisation et les Libri Miraculorum – recueils des miracles accomplis par le saint après sa mort – constituent des sources importantes pour étudier comment la maladie était perçue et décrite.
Nous avons abordé en partie ce sujet en analysant des miracles de guérison accomplis par Guillaume et son neveu Philippe, tous deux archevêques de Bourges au XIIIe siècle, qui bénéficièrent d'un procès de canonisation. En particulier le procès de Philippe, dont les documents sont encore inédits, a été étudié à partir de la transcription du manuscrit Vat. Lat. 4019 du XIIIe siècle
Nous avons abordé en partie ce sujet en analysant des miracles de guérison accomplis par Guillaume et son neveu Philippe, tous deux archevêques de Bourges au XIIIe siècle, qui bénéficièrent d'un procès de canonisation. En particulier le procès de Philippe, dont les documents sont encore inédits, a été étudié à partir de la transcription du manuscrit Vat. Lat. 4019 du XIIIe siècle
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Chilbirth, a dramatic event for the society of the ancien régime since it often resulted in the death or disability of the mother or child, is a subject where different languages and knowledges are involved, such as anthropology,... more
Chilbirth, a dramatic event for the society of the ancien régime since it often resulted in the death or disability of the mother or child, is a subject where different languages and knowledges are involved, such as anthropology, religion, medicine. In West, unlike in the classical world and with the advent of Christianity, men were not involved in medical interventions related to sexuality. Mulieres, female relatives and neighbors, who had by now lost the midwifery skills of antiquity, were able to assist the labouring woman because of the accumulated knowledge and experience they had garnered from a variety of oral traditions. The figure of the midwife tended to reappear in Late Middle Ages, when physicians started to include obstetrical knowledges in their texts.
Starting from 13th century, childbirth miracles became more frequent in hagiographical sources. This is partly due to the fact that people, who prayed saints to intercede on their behalf, started to invoke divine help through prayers at home and not necessarily at the sanctuaries, where the saints' holy relics were preserved, as had been the case in the past.
The miracles recorded in canonization processes – the sources where the saints' miracolous actions tend to be richly detailed for the purpose of demonstrating their authenticity – if correctly interpreted, become a significant wellspring of information about the rituals and actions of the figures who flocked around women in labour.
The aim of the paper is to describe the childbirth scene in the Late Middle Ages by comparing canonization process miracles with medical texts of the same period. In particular, I will focus on the role of the midwives and the complications underwent by women in labour, among which disabilities due to childbirth, and of the newborns.
From the religious perspective, childbirth entailed some far-reaching dilemmas connected to the death of the unborn infants in the maternal womb because of the impossibility to baptize them and thus save their soul. For this reason one of the most frequent miracle requested was that of à repit. This will be analyzed to explain the different behaviours of the faithfuls who were confronted with the death, or presumed death, of a child.
It is usually rare to find in hagiographical sources the descriptions of some very spread ritual practices connected to healing and childbirth, which due to their characteristics, are sometimes reductively considered to be magic.
Specifically I am referring to a group of objects and words that are ascribed to the “popular medicine” which were used in a precise ritual for the purpose of easing travail and hence enabling women to quickly and painlessly give birth.
These practices, found in prescriptions, medical and even religious texts, though often regarded by scholars as magic, are attributed to the overlapping of medicine and religion. They were included in the frequent therapeutic actions present in childbirth scenes and for this reason they will be described in the paper.
Starting from 13th century, childbirth miracles became more frequent in hagiographical sources. This is partly due to the fact that people, who prayed saints to intercede on their behalf, started to invoke divine help through prayers at home and not necessarily at the sanctuaries, where the saints' holy relics were preserved, as had been the case in the past.
The miracles recorded in canonization processes – the sources where the saints' miracolous actions tend to be richly detailed for the purpose of demonstrating their authenticity – if correctly interpreted, become a significant wellspring of information about the rituals and actions of the figures who flocked around women in labour.
The aim of the paper is to describe the childbirth scene in the Late Middle Ages by comparing canonization process miracles with medical texts of the same period. In particular, I will focus on the role of the midwives and the complications underwent by women in labour, among which disabilities due to childbirth, and of the newborns.
From the religious perspective, childbirth entailed some far-reaching dilemmas connected to the death of the unborn infants in the maternal womb because of the impossibility to baptize them and thus save their soul. For this reason one of the most frequent miracle requested was that of à repit. This will be analyzed to explain the different behaviours of the faithfuls who were confronted with the death, or presumed death, of a child.
It is usually rare to find in hagiographical sources the descriptions of some very spread ritual practices connected to healing and childbirth, which due to their characteristics, are sometimes reductively considered to be magic.
Specifically I am referring to a group of objects and words that are ascribed to the “popular medicine” which were used in a precise ritual for the purpose of easing travail and hence enabling women to quickly and painlessly give birth.
These practices, found in prescriptions, medical and even religious texts, though often regarded by scholars as magic, are attributed to the overlapping of medicine and religion. They were included in the frequent therapeutic actions present in childbirth scenes and for this reason they will be described in the paper.
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Safeguarding public health and maintaining public order by city authorities were two inseparable functions in the Early Modern Period. The public ordinances stressed this aspect and tried to restrict the presence of sick beggars who were... more
Safeguarding public health and maintaining public order by city authorities were two inseparable functions in the Early Modern Period. The public ordinances stressed this aspect and tried to restrict the presence of sick beggars who were presumed to be contagious or who had nonetheless an unsightly physical apparence. One of the problems of the city authorities was to distinguish between people who truly needed treatment and those who pretended to be sick. There are many sources regarding this subject that include literary, medical and judicial texts. Many of these were studied in the past by Piero Camporesi and more recently by Alessandro Pastore, but the subject merits further consideration.
By comparing different sources and starting from the Parisian ordinances of the XVth and XVIth centuries, the aim of the paper is to understand the image of the fraudulant beggar, the type of diseases simulated, the fear that these illnesses could strike in the community and the eventual moral prejudice regarding these maladies. I will briefly speak about the people who had, or pretended to have, the disease called Saint Anthony’s fire and who were cured by the Order of Hospitallers of St. Anthony. In particular, by studying some notarial texts which remain unknown to the scholars of the Order, I will explain how the Order's mother house in Saint-Antoine de Viennois appears to be similar to institutions directed towards the maintenance of public health and order, as for example, the leper hospitals.
By comparing different sources and starting from the Parisian ordinances of the XVth and XVIth centuries, the aim of the paper is to understand the image of the fraudulant beggar, the type of diseases simulated, the fear that these illnesses could strike in the community and the eventual moral prejudice regarding these maladies. I will briefly speak about the people who had, or pretended to have, the disease called Saint Anthony’s fire and who were cured by the Order of Hospitallers of St. Anthony. In particular, by studying some notarial texts which remain unknown to the scholars of the Order, I will explain how the Order's mother house in Saint-Antoine de Viennois appears to be similar to institutions directed towards the maintenance of public health and order, as for example, the leper hospitals.
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Dans le contexte de la multiplicité des significations attribuées aux maladies durant le Moyen âge, entendues comme actes de punition, moments d'expiation des péchés, mais aussi comme actes d'amour de Dieu, dans la pédagogie élaboré par... more
Dans le contexte de la multiplicité des significations attribuées aux maladies durant le Moyen âge, entendues comme actes de punition, moments d'expiation des péchés, mais aussi comme actes d'amour de Dieu, dans la pédagogie élaboré par la théologie chrétienne, une partie significative en est constituée par l'histoire de l'ignis sacer. Une telle maladie, qui conduisait à la dissolution de la chair noircie, de ce qui était perçu comme un «occulto igne» à l'intérieur du corps, a été interprétée, au Haut Moyen âge, comme un avant-goût des peines de l'enfer. Des analogies et des métaphores liées au feu de l'enfer se sont ensuite construites alors que les épidémies étaient considérées par les auteurs médiévaux comme le résultat d’un acte de punition divine, se réfèrant toujours à un péché précis. Les épidémies de brûlure ont agi comme un évènement catalyseur pour la création ou le développement du cultes de plusieurs saints dans les sanctuaires sur le territoire de Gaule. Le but de cette communication est de mettre en évidence la façon dont la maladie en question fut perçue durant le haut Moyen âge et de illustrer les caractéristiques miraculeuses des saints dont le culte était étroitement lié à la maladie.
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Introduzione
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Tra Medioevo ed Età moderna dominava l’idea che l’utero della donna potesse celare «meraviglie» che solo all’ultimo momento venivano rivelate. Testimonianze di una mentalità e di un sapere condiviso entro il quale il pensiero scientifico... more
Tra Medioevo ed Età moderna dominava l’idea che l’utero della donna potesse celare «meraviglie» che solo all’ultimo momento venivano rivelate. Testimonianze di una mentalità e di un sapere condiviso entro il quale il pensiero scientifico e la tradizione popolare tendevano a fondersi.
Venire alla luce è sempre stata una soglia difficile da definire, sfuggente, dolorosa e caricata di pudore e mistero arduo da rivelare. Questo libro si propone di raccontare il modo in cui era descritta e rappresentata la «sce- na del parto» in Occidente, nel periodo compreso tra l’Alto Medioevo e l’Età moderna fino al xvii secolo – prima cioè della medicalizzazione settecentesca della pratica ostetrica e della nascita delle cliniche. Alessandra Foscati considera un ampio ventaglio di fonti di diverso genere (mediche, giuridiche, religiose, letterarie) che le servono per raccontare le azioni compiute sulla partoriente, oggetto di attenzioni da par- te di altre donne, tra cui l’ostetrica, le parenti, le vicine di casa (il parto è un momento corale di grande solidarietà femminile), ma anche di uomini (il marito, il prete e, da un certo momento in poi, il chirurgo). Con sguardo ampio e diacronico, il libro mette in evidenza gli aspetti e gli elementi di lunga continuità, cosíìcome i cambiamenti più significativi dell’Età moderna.
Venire alla luce è sempre stata una soglia difficile da definire, sfuggente, dolorosa e caricata di pudore e mistero arduo da rivelare. Questo libro si propone di raccontare il modo in cui era descritta e rappresentata la «sce- na del parto» in Occidente, nel periodo compreso tra l’Alto Medioevo e l’Età moderna fino al xvii secolo – prima cioè della medicalizzazione settecentesca della pratica ostetrica e della nascita delle cliniche. Alessandra Foscati considera un ampio ventaglio di fonti di diverso genere (mediche, giuridiche, religiose, letterarie) che le servono per raccontare le azioni compiute sulla partoriente, oggetto di attenzioni da par- te di altre donne, tra cui l’ostetrica, le parenti, le vicine di casa (il parto è un momento corale di grande solidarietà femminile), ma anche di uomini (il marito, il prete e, da un certo momento in poi, il chirurgo). Con sguardo ampio e diacronico, il libro mette in evidenza gli aspetti e gli elementi di lunga continuità, cosíìcome i cambiamenti più significativi dell’Età moderna.
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The introduction outlines the author's methodological approach. In a departure from the historiographical tradition, she aims to demonstrate that the term Saint Anthony's Fire, coined in the Middle Ages, was only rarely used at the time... more
The introduction outlines the author's methodological approach. In a departure from the historiographical tradition, she aims to demonstrate that the term Saint Anthony's Fire, coined in the Middle Ages, was only rarely used at the time to describe ergotism-a disease triggered by the consumption of a parasitic fungus on grain cereals, which mainly caused gangrene in the limbs. Adopting appropriate epistemological criteria, the author collects and interprets the different meanings of the expression in medical, literary, hagiographical and legal texts. Differing methodological approaches are needed for these sources, particularly because the disease could sometimes assume a symbolic value in non-medical texts. This requires interpretation and complicates the task of the historian studying the diseases of the past.
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After the discovery of the ergotism epidemics (poisoning caused by ingesting the fungal toxin of rye) and its etiology, eighteenth-century physicians interpreted medieval chronicles in their medical texts in order to recognize the... more
After the discovery of the ergotism epidemics (poisoning caused by ingesting the fungal toxin of rye) and its etiology, eighteenth-century physicians interpreted medieval chronicles in their medical texts in order to recognize the occurrences of ergotic diseases through retrospective diagnosis. They assumed that St. Anthony's fire and ignis sacer ("sacred fire") recorded in medieval texts represented the same disease, ergotism. This interpretative method, lacking a textual basis in the sources, has been incorrectly followed by historians till now. This book examines this historical prejudice through textual analysis, comparing diverse medieval and early modern sources. A striking semantic complexity emerges that changes the concept of St. Anthony's fire and modifies our understanding of diseases in general. This research illuminates aspects of the history of medicine, society, and hospitals.
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In the varied spectrum of healers to whom the sick people could turn to in Middle Ages, including physicians, surgeons and different kind of empirical practitioners, the saint was often the first to whom they would refer. Miracle tales,... more
In the varied spectrum of healers to whom the sick people could turn to in Middle Ages, including physicians, surgeons and different kind of empirical practitioners, the saint was often the first to whom they would refer. Miracle tales, therefore, represent an essential source for a historical investigation into diseases and sick people. Without claiming to be exhaustive, this article aims to briefly outline this topic through several examples taken from miracles accounts in some canonization processes and Libri miraculorum, compiled between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries. It will be highlighted how these sources, when properly interpretated, are of fundamen- tal importance for understanding the relationship between the sick and his/her community of reference, as well as the work of some empirical healers who approached the sick person’s bedside. Furthermore, these sources are unique lexicographical treasures related to the vocabulary of disease – an aspect still largely overlooked.
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The conception of monsters was a subject of interest as early as Aristotle’s works of biology and this interest continued, with different developments, throughout the classical and medieval periods. In the sixteenth-century, a real... more
The conception of monsters was a subject of interest as early as Aristotle’s works of biology and this interest continued, with different developments, throughout the classical and medieval periods. In the sixteenth-century, a real obsession with monstrous conceptions and births developed. The subject became a common presence in medical treatises on obstetrics and gynaecology, which underwent widespread dissemination in this period. Attempts were made to classify beings that deviated from the natural as well as the causes that led to their generation. The physician Rodrigo de Castro Lusitano also addressed the issue in his comprehensive work on the nature of women and their diseases, De uniuersa mulierum medicina, published in 1603. He dealt with the subject by combining philosophical and literary considerations from Antiquity with medieval and Renaissance medical knowledge. Given the importance of the work, the aim of the article is to analyse the way Castro addressed the issue of the origin and nature of monsters and his main sources of reference. The article will also consider how monstrous births assisted his general program to clarify female nature and to prescribe treatments for the diseases of women.
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In the 16th century there was a flourishing of Latin texts expressly devoted to gynecology and obstetrics, in which great parts were dedicated to the description of women’s diseases. In that time the Latin disease lexicon was enriched by... more
In the 16th century there was a flourishing of Latin texts expressly devoted to gynecology and obstetrics, in which great parts were dedicated to the description of women’s diseases. In that time the Latin disease lexicon was enriched by direct translations from Greek of Hippocratic and Galenic texts, by adding to the medieval lexicon. An example of the richness of the disease lexicon can be found in Castro Lusitanus’ De universa mulierum medicina, published at the beginning of the 17th century. The choices on the disease names in Castro’s work are often original: we can find names that normally have no link to gynecological diseases, like the expression lupus – a medieval nosographic term, created by metaphor and referring to the gangrene of the lower limbs – or Saint Anthony’s Fire. Given these premises, this work aims to present a study of some disease names included in Castro’s treatise in order to highlight the originality of the author’s choice, as well as to try to recognize, in some specific cases, his sources of reference and his way of relating to them.
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In the Middle Ages, a severe ulcerative lesion of the lower limbs consuming a sick person's flesh was named lupus because it was metaphorically associated with the wolf, probably with respect to the feared anthropophagic characteristic of... more
In the Middle Ages, a severe ulcerative lesion of the lower limbs consuming a sick person's flesh was named lupus because it was metaphorically associated with the wolf, probably with respect to the feared anthropophagic characteristic of this beast. Thirteenth-century theologians' commentaries on the Bible linked lupus with morbus regius, a polysemic term that could denote jaundice, scrophula or leprosy. Moreover, for reasons of lexical proximity, lupus was at times confused with lupia, a subcutaneous swelling. The aim of this article is to present an inquiry of the earliest appearance of lupus as nosographic name and its exact meaning(s) and possible synonyms found in different sources, as well as a study on the competition among these different diseases names. The investigation will serve as a significant heuristic example for the purpose of demonstrating the overall complexity of the nosologic lexicon of the past.
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The uterine mole was the subject of various interpretations regarding its aetiology. In the Middle Ages it was considered produced only by women through nocturnal emission of their "seed". The idea of the mola as a product of a blend of... more
The uterine mole was the subject of various interpretations regarding its aetiology. In the Middle Ages it was considered produced only by women through nocturnal emission of their "seed". The idea of the mola as a product of a blend of male and female seed became dominant in 16th century thanks to the re-discovered of a Galenic text. This contribution aims to highlight the different ways of interpreting the mola in the period between the Middle Ages and the 16th century, showing how the different interpretations were significant for judging women in ethical terms.
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The practice of performing a Caesarean section on a living woman in order to save both mother and child was conceived by the physician and surgeon François Rousset in his short treatise, written in French, at the end of the 16th... more
The practice of performing a Caesarean section on a living woman in order to save both mother and child was conceived by the physician and surgeon François Rousset in his short treatise, written in French, at the end of the 16th century. Until then, only the opening of the dead mother’s womb had been discussed and practiced for the safety of the child, with both legal and religious implications. After Rousset’s work, medieval tales about children who had survived the operation came back into consideration in medical and religious texts in order to convince the readers that a “caesarean section” on a dead woman could be successful. But the children mentioned in the tales were uncommon: they were saints or kings and, in the Middle Ages, their survival was perceived as a miraculous event. In the same period, different kinds of miracle tales related to the “caesarean section” were written, and some even described the opening of a living mother’s womb. The article aims at analyzing these stories in the cultural context in which they were written, taking into account coeval medical obstetrical knowledge, as well as dissertations (both religious and legal) and legends on the practice of opening of a pregnant woman’s womb.
Il parto cesareo su donna viva, per salvare entrambi i soggetti del parto, la donna e il bambino, venne preconizzato in ambito medico alla fine del XVI secolo, nel breve trattato in lingua francese del medico e chirurgo François Rousset. Fino ad allora era stata unicamente discussa e praticata l’apertura del ventre della madre morta per la salvezza del bambino, con ricadute sul piano giuridico e religioso. Dopo l’opera di Rousset, in testi medici e religiosi, per convincere della possibilità di successo del “cesareo” su donna morta, tornarono in auge racconti medievali su bambini sopravvissuti all’intervento. Si trattava in realtà di bambini non comuni, santi o re, e, nel Medioevo, la loro sopravvivenza era recepita alla stregua di un evento miracoloso, mentre nello stesso periodo vennero redatti diversi tipi di racconti di miracoli riferiti al “cesareo”, che comprendevano anche l’apertura del ventre della madre viva. L’articolo si propone di analizzare tali racconti nel contesto culturale di redazione, tenuto conto delle coeve conoscenze medico-ostetriche, così come delle dissertazioni (in ambito religioso e giuridico) e delle leggende dedicate al tema dell’apertura del ventre della donna gravida.
http://www.serena.unina.it/index.php/rm/issue/view/567
Il parto cesareo su donna viva, per salvare entrambi i soggetti del parto, la donna e il bambino, venne preconizzato in ambito medico alla fine del XVI secolo, nel breve trattato in lingua francese del medico e chirurgo François Rousset. Fino ad allora era stata unicamente discussa e praticata l’apertura del ventre della madre morta per la salvezza del bambino, con ricadute sul piano giuridico e religioso. Dopo l’opera di Rousset, in testi medici e religiosi, per convincere della possibilità di successo del “cesareo” su donna morta, tornarono in auge racconti medievali su bambini sopravvissuti all’intervento. Si trattava in realtà di bambini non comuni, santi o re, e, nel Medioevo, la loro sopravvivenza era recepita alla stregua di un evento miracoloso, mentre nello stesso periodo vennero redatti diversi tipi di racconti di miracoli riferiti al “cesareo”, che comprendevano anche l’apertura del ventre della madre viva. L’articolo si propone di analizzare tali racconti nel contesto culturale di redazione, tenuto conto delle coeve conoscenze medico-ostetriche, così come delle dissertazioni (in ambito religioso e giuridico) e delle leggende dedicate al tema dell’apertura del ventre della donna gravida.
http://www.serena.unina.it/index.php/rm/issue/view/567
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The caesarean section performed on a living woman to save both mother and baby is first considered in gynaecological texts in the late sixteenth century after the treatise by the French physician François Rousset. It is included... more
The caesarean section performed on a living woman to save both mother and baby is first considered in gynaecological texts in the late sixteenth century after the treatise by the French physician François Rousset. It is included alongside descriptions of the post-mortem caesarean section, already practised in the Middle Ages in order to save the baby. The early seventeenth-century work by the Lusitanian physician Rodrigo de Castro is often referenced on this subject, seen as critical of Rousset's theory. Castro is cited above all for formulating a new suggestion – operating on a woman in the throes of death – because he was convinced that the post-mortem caesarean section was pointless. This article provides thorough analysis of Castro's work, comparing it to Rousset’s treatise and medical texts by other authors to reveal its originality and its real contribution to the interpretation of the two different caesarean sections.
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Finding one’s way in the medical lexicon of the past is always hard, but there are some terms which more than others present interpretive difficulties due to their intrinsic polysemous nature. The case of erysipelas, and expressions... more
Finding one’s way in the medical lexicon of the past is always hard, but there are some terms which more than others present interpretive difficulties due to their intrinsic polysemous nature. The case of erysipelas, and expressions linked thereto such as herpes esthiomenus, is paradigmatic inasmuch as it demonstrates how nosographic terms bear different meanings, not only following their passage from one linguistic register to another and their appearance in various medical texts, but also in relation to the way of understanding the disease, and therefore of describing it, in cultural contexts other than medicine. The purpose of the article is to highlight this semantic complexity, setting out from the description of several clinical cases –and related scholia– dealing with the disease in question and found in Amatus Lusitanus’s Centuriae. In particular, Amatus’s lexicon will be studied in relationship to that of Galen emerging from the most modern 16th century Latin translations, that of mediaeval medical texts, and the lexicon deriving from a ‘folk’ context.
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The Role of Medical Practitioners in Recognizing Miracles. Canonization Processes Between the 14th and 16th Centuries (Italy and France) Though forensic medicine came into being in the modern age it was the result of a process that dates... more
The Role of Medical Practitioners in Recognizing Miracles. Canonization Processes Between the 14th and 16th Centuries (Italy and France)
Though forensic medicine came into being in the modern age it was the result of a process that dates back to the late middle ages, when medical practitioners (physicians, surgeons, barbers, midwives) were called upon to give their experts’ s opinion in the context of criminal investigations. These medical practitioners were also called on to express an opinion in processes of canonization. In the latter case, was their testimony acknowledged as being as important as that concerning criminal investigations? From the 14th century to the end of the middle Ages in Italy and France – territories featuring an early development of Studia and of faculties of medicine – was there an increase in the participation of these medical practitioners as witnesses in the investigations in partibus of canonization processes? What was the probative value of their testimony? The article seeks to answer these questions through analysis of several canonization processes drawn up in the territory under examination between the 14th and the early 16th century.
Though forensic medicine came into being in the modern age it was the result of a process that dates back to the late middle ages, when medical practitioners (physicians, surgeons, barbers, midwives) were called upon to give their experts’ s opinion in the context of criminal investigations. These medical practitioners were also called on to express an opinion in processes of canonization. In the latter case, was their testimony acknowledged as being as important as that concerning criminal investigations? From the 14th century to the end of the middle Ages in Italy and France – territories featuring an early development of Studia and of faculties of medicine – was there an increase in the participation of these medical practitioners as witnesses in the investigations in partibus of canonization processes? What was the probative value of their testimony? The article seeks to answer these questions through analysis of several canonization processes drawn up in the territory under examination between the 14th and the early 16th century.
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Ricostruire correttamente la scena del parto, così come le personalità e le azioni di coloro che assistevano la partoriente nel periodo medievale, risulta un compito difficile, non privo di ambiguità. Il soggetto per essere chiarito... more
Ricostruire correttamente la scena del parto, così come le personalità e le azioni di coloro che assistevano la partoriente nel periodo medievale, risulta un compito difficile, non privo di ambiguità. Il soggetto per essere chiarito necessita di studi nell'ambito dell'antropologia, della religione, della storia della medicina. Attraverso l'analisi dei racconti dei miracoli del parto, presenti in testi agiografici (processi di canonizzazione e libri miraculorum) redatti dal XIII all'inizio del XVI secolo – alcuni dei quali inediti –, si è cercato di aumentare le conoscenze sull'argomento. Tali fonti appaiono fondamentali per contribuire alla storia delle malattie e della salute della donna e del parto nel periodo medievale.
It is not always easy to reconstruct the childbirth scene correctly, and the personalities and actions of those assisting labouring women during the Middle Ages can also remain ambiguous. In order to elucidate the subject of childbirth, the topic must be approached through the lens of anthropology, religion and medicine. In particular, it is possible to gather new information through the analysis of hagiographical texts (canonization processes and libri miraculorum) – some of which are still unpublished – dating from the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, in which the survival of either mother or child is often viewed as a miracle. These sources are fundamental to the history of women's health care and childbirth in late Middle Ages.
It is not always easy to reconstruct the childbirth scene correctly, and the personalities and actions of those assisting labouring women during the Middle Ages can also remain ambiguous. In order to elucidate the subject of childbirth, the topic must be approached through the lens of anthropology, religion and medicine. In particular, it is possible to gather new information through the analysis of hagiographical texts (canonization processes and libri miraculorum) – some of which are still unpublished – dating from the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, in which the survival of either mother or child is often viewed as a miracle. These sources are fundamental to the history of women's health care and childbirth in late Middle Ages.
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Historians call sectio in mortua the act of opening the abdomen of a woman who has died during pregnancy or in childbirth in order to extract a baby. According to recent studies, the sectio is considered to be a routine practice carried... more
Historians call sectio in mortua the act of opening the abdomen of a woman who has died during pregnancy or in childbirth in order to extract a baby. According to recent studies, the sectio is considered to be a routine practice carried out by male surgeons from the end of the Middle Ages, particularly in Italy, where the evidence of the sectio being performed by a midwife is scanty. But was it really such a popular operation at the time, and can the figure of the midwife be seen as secondary? It is also known that the operation was qualified through aspects which went beyond the surgical sphere, such as religion, myth, and especially law. How did these fields inter-act? This article highlights the complexity of sectio through the interpretation of different sources spanning from the late Middle Ages to the Early Modern period.
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Abstract In the medieval western collections of medical recipes, references to theoretically non-consecrated hosts used for the healing of various diseases are very frequent. If on the one hand their use was codified as a normal medical... more
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In the medieval western collections of medical recipes, references to theoretically non-consecrated hosts used for the healing of various diseases are very frequent. If on the one hand their use was codified as a normal medical prescription, on the other hand their use was also ritualized by the inscriptions of specific words on them which referred to the Trinity and by how they were taken, which entailed enunciating prayers. Moreover many objects and charms referring to Christ's passion were included as a shared therapeutic way, to demonstrate the blurred boundary among religion, medicine and everything that was often considered superstitious or “magic”. By the analysis of medical and hagiographic sources, the aim of the article is to provide an overview of the objects and rituals used for healing that symbolically refer to the Eucharist – seeing the Eucharist not only
as the moment of incarnation, but also as a reference to the death and resurrection of Christ. In particular we will also focus on the therapeutic role of the Agnus Dei, the wax disc imprinted with the Lamb of God that was made on Holy Saturday in Rome as a memento of the papal coronation.
In the medieval western collections of medical recipes, references to theoretically non-consecrated hosts used for the healing of various diseases are very frequent. If on the one hand their use was codified as a normal medical prescription, on the other hand their use was also ritualized by the inscriptions of specific words on them which referred to the Trinity and by how they were taken, which entailed enunciating prayers. Moreover many objects and charms referring to Christ's passion were included as a shared therapeutic way, to demonstrate the blurred boundary among religion, medicine and everything that was often considered superstitious or “magic”. By the analysis of medical and hagiographic sources, the aim of the article is to provide an overview of the objects and rituals used for healing that symbolically refer to the Eucharist – seeing the Eucharist not only
as the moment of incarnation, but also as a reference to the death and resurrection of Christ. In particular we will also focus on the therapeutic role of the Agnus Dei, the wax disc imprinted with the Lamb of God that was made on Holy Saturday in Rome as a memento of the papal coronation.
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In the Early Middle Ages, assistance during childbirth, a dramatic event for the society of the ancien régime since it often resulted in the death or disability of the mother or child, was almost exclusively provided by women. It was only... more
In the Early Middle Ages, assistance during childbirth, a dramatic event for the society of the ancien régime since it often resulted in the death or disability of the mother or child, was almost exclusively provided by women. It was only in the late Middle Ages that Western European physicians began to include references to obstetrics in their texts, thereby demonstrating that unlike in the classical world and with the advent of Christianity, men were not involved in medical interventions related to sexuality for many centuries. Mulieres, female relatives and neighbors, who had by now lost the midwifery skills of antiquity, were able to assist the labouring woman because of the accumulated knowledge and experience they had garnered from a variety of oral traditions from the spheres of science, religion and ‘magic’. Invoking saints for help was very common. It was necessary to save mothers from the risk of death, but it was indispensable that children emerge from the maternal womb and survive for enough time for them to be baptized, in order to ensure salvation for their souls, burdened by original sin, and to avoid eternal damnation. Thus for the rebirth of the soul, the birth of the body was necessary, if even only for a brief time. Saving a fetus's soul was so important that Caesarean operations were performed on dead mothers, at the insistence of the religious authorities, even before that of the medical community. This was the only type of Caesarean operation that existed until the Early Modern Period, in spite of some classical fabulae which speak of heroes born from living mothers' opened wombs. By comparing different sources, particularly medical and hagiographical ones, the present article aims to describe what happened during the childbirth.
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Until the late sixteenth century there was evidence, in the West and in text sources of various kinds, including those of medical sources, of a persistent association relating the Virgin to a burning illness which was seen in its epidemic... more
Until the late sixteenth century there was evidence, in the West and in text sources of various kinds, including those of medical sources, of a persistent association relating the Virgin to a burning illness which was seen in its epidemic form (probably ergotism) and in its individual form, as being simply a gangrene of the limbs. This association was originated by a series of tales mainly related to the collections of miracula maked up for those sanctuaries that stretched from the North of France to the present-day Belgium, where the Virgin appears as a privileged thaumaturgist of the illness in question. Beyond the epistemological evidence, it is comprehensive how such stories, often similar in tale, served also as a justification of the birth of an institution or a particular cult dedicated to the Virgin,just as it happened in the case of the Saint Candle at Arras.
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Early Science and Medicine, 28 (2023)
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«The book's theme is complex, since it is set within the framework of a medical argument that intersects with philology and theology as well as with the accessory sciences strictly connected with medicine, such as astronomy/astrology,... more
«The book's theme is complex, since it is set within the framework of a medical argument that intersects with philology and theology as well as with the accessory sciences strictly connected with medicine, such as astronomy/astrology, alchemy, and phisiognomy. With the expository clarity that distinguishes her, Jacquart succeeds in leading the reader step by step [...] »
Research Interests: Medieval Philosophy, Medieval Literature, History of Medicine, Medieval Studies, History of Science, and 41 morePhysiognomy, Alchemy, Medieval Science, Medieval theology (Medieval Studies), History of Astronomy, History of Astrology, Medieval Europe, Medieval Culture, Philosophy (Medieval Studies), History of Physiognomy, Medieval philology, History of Medicine and the Body, Medieval Astronomy, Filosofía medieval, Medieval Medicine, Histoire Des Sciences, History of Medicine in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Edad Media, Histoire des sciences et de la philosophie médiévales, Medieval Astrology, History of Medieval Philosophy, Astrologia, Medioevo, Alchimia, History of alchemy, Middle Aged, Astral Magic, Medieval Astrology and Magic, Moyen Age, History of Medieval Science, Storia della medicina, Medieval Medicine, Astrology and Astronomy, Storia Della Filosofia Medievale, Storia culturale e sociale del Medioevo, History of Phisiognomy, Storia Della Scienza, Pietro D'Abano, Astrological Medicine, History of Science and Medicine In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Medieval Literature and Philosophy, Fisiognomica, and Physiognomie
Atti del Convegno internazionale (Roma, 19-21 novembre 2009), a cura di A. Bartolomei Romagnoli, G. Picasso, Firenze, SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2013, in Sanctorum, 10 (2013), pp. 276-279
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
A cura di Laura Andreani e Agostino Paravicini Bagliani. Questo terzo convegno internazionale di teologia politica, organizzato dall'Opera del Duomo di Orvieto in collaborazione con la S.I.S.M.E.L., si è concentrato sul miracolo in... more
A cura di Laura Andreani e Agostino Paravicini Bagliani.
Questo terzo convegno internazionale di teologia politica, organizzato dall'Opera del Duomo di Orvieto in collaborazione con la S.I.S.M.E.L., si è concentrato sul miracolo in termini di spettacolo, qualora il miracoloso avesse messo alla prova ordini sociali, ecclesiastici e non ecclesiastici, scatenando l'immaginazione, nella letteratura e nell'iconografia. Per studiare questo tema Orvieto è parso un luogo ideale, perché il miracolo qui corrisponde a realtà dell'arte e dell'architettura che meritano di essere prese in considerazione e propongono suggestivi interrogativi. La riflessione si è svolta sul lungo periodo, ben oltre il Medioevo e su un ampio spettro geografico, dall'Europa occidentale al Nuovo Mondo. Il volume presenta un mosaico di temi e di questioni intorno alla presenza del miracolo nella società, ponendo al centro dell'attenzione concetti come la verifica, le strategie di tra-sformazione di un corpo in un corpo santo, le mille reticenze e i forti sospetti nei confronti del passaggio dal naturale al sovrannaturale. Si discutono le messe in scena del miracoloso nel mondo del meraviglioso e del mirabile al servizio di finalità religiose, politiche ed ecclesiastiche nelle sue varie forme e contingenze, sullo sfondo di un'attenzione alle grandi tradizioni interpretative del pensiero cristiano da sant'Agostino in poi. This third international conference on political theology, organized by the Opera of the Duomo of Orvieto in collaboration with the S.I.S.M.E.L., focused on the miracle in terms of entertainment, if the miraculous had tested social, ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical orders, unleashing the imagination, in literature and in iconography. To study this theme Orvieto seemed an ideal place, because of its rich expressions of art and architecture that propose suggestive questions. The reflection took place over the long term, well beyond the Middle Ages and over a wide geographical spectrum, from Western Europe to the New World. The volume presents a mosaic of themes and questions around the presence of the miracle in society, focusing attention on concepts such as verification, the strategies to transform a body into a holy body, the reticences and strong suspicions towards the passage from the natural to the supernatural ; as well as the relations between the miraculous, the marvelous and the admirable , at the service of religious purposes, political and ecclesiastical in its various forms and contingencies; on the background of the great interpretative traditions of Christian thought from St. Augustine onwards. Ugolino di prete Ilario e Giovanni di Buccio Leonardelli / Antonio Bianchini e Luigi Lais, Il papa espone pubblicamente il corporale. Or-vieto, Duomo, Cappella del Corporale (© Opera del Duomo di Orvieto) m e d i E V I Il nostro secolo ha raggiunto una consapevo-lezza del significato del Medioevo che la co-scienza intellettuale europea aveva smarrito; fuori dalle maglie dell'ideologia, il Medioevo si scopre popolato di differenze, tempo di pa-radossi, grande fucina di idee, di stili di vita e di forme letterarie. Il Medioevo è plurale. Più di ogni altra epoca storica esso è capace di tenere insieme grandi opposizioni e in que-sta pluralità cerca il suo senso nella storia uni-versale delle civiltà. Plurali dovranno essere gli strumenti critici da mettere in opera per comprendere la sua tradizione letteraria e per aprire i panorami della sua storia culturale. Con questo spirito e con un'esigenza di sperimentazione che ri-veli il senso degli studi storici nel nostro tempo, la S.I.S.M.E.L. inaugura una nuova collana, che parla del Medioevo declinandolo in «mediEvi». The Middle Ages is a multi-faceted era. We discover in it a fount of ideas, lifestyles, and literary genres, all teeming with diversity and paradox. Accordingly, the critical tools we apply to understand its literary traditions and to open panoramas on its cultural history should be equally multi-faceted. Guided by a spirit of exploration and experimentation, S.I.S.M.E.L. inaugurates a new series that engages with the Middle Ages by redefining it as 'Middle Ages' in the plural «mediEvi». m e d i E V I mE 21 Books in the Series: 7. Gli italiani e la Terrasanta. A c. di A. Mu-sarra. Prefazione di F. Cardini 8. Il «Corpus Domini». Teologia, antropologia e politica. A c. di L. Andreani e A. Paravicini Bagliani 9. «Ragionar d'amore». Il lessico delle emozioni nella lirica medievale. A c. di A. Decaria e L. Leonardi 10. L'immagine di Alfonso il Magnanimo tra let-teratura e storia, tra Corona d'Aragona e Italia. / La imatge d'Alfons el Magnànim en la literatura i la historiografia entre la Corona d'Aragó i Itàlia. A c. di F. Delle Donne e J. Torró Torrent 11. Il secolo di Carlo Magno. Istituzioni, lettera-ture e cultura del tempo carolingio. A c. di I. Pa-gani e F. Santi 12. B. Luiselli, Romanobarbarica. Scritti scelti. A c. di A. Bruzzone e M. L. Fele 13. Tradurre dal latino nel Medioevo italiano. Translatio studii e procedure linguistiche. A c. di L. Leonardi e S. Cerullo 14. Latinidad medieval hispánica. Ed. de J. F. Mesa Sanz 15. I confini della lirica. Tempi, luoghi, tradizione della poesia romanza. A c. di A. Decaria e C. Lagomarsini 16. Catalogazione, storia della scrittura, storia del libro. I manoscritti datati d'Italia vent'anni dopo. A c. di T. De Robertis e N. Giovè Marchioli 17. «Moribus antiquis sibi me fecere poetam». Al-bertino Mussato nel VII centenario dell'incorona-zione poetica (Padova 1315-2015).
Questo terzo convegno internazionale di teologia politica, organizzato dall'Opera del Duomo di Orvieto in collaborazione con la S.I.S.M.E.L., si è concentrato sul miracolo in termini di spettacolo, qualora il miracoloso avesse messo alla prova ordini sociali, ecclesiastici e non ecclesiastici, scatenando l'immaginazione, nella letteratura e nell'iconografia. Per studiare questo tema Orvieto è parso un luogo ideale, perché il miracolo qui corrisponde a realtà dell'arte e dell'architettura che meritano di essere prese in considerazione e propongono suggestivi interrogativi. La riflessione si è svolta sul lungo periodo, ben oltre il Medioevo e su un ampio spettro geografico, dall'Europa occidentale al Nuovo Mondo. Il volume presenta un mosaico di temi e di questioni intorno alla presenza del miracolo nella società, ponendo al centro dell'attenzione concetti come la verifica, le strategie di tra-sformazione di un corpo in un corpo santo, le mille reticenze e i forti sospetti nei confronti del passaggio dal naturale al sovrannaturale. Si discutono le messe in scena del miracoloso nel mondo del meraviglioso e del mirabile al servizio di finalità religiose, politiche ed ecclesiastiche nelle sue varie forme e contingenze, sullo sfondo di un'attenzione alle grandi tradizioni interpretative del pensiero cristiano da sant'Agostino in poi. This third international conference on political theology, organized by the Opera of the Duomo of Orvieto in collaboration with the S.I.S.M.E.L., focused on the miracle in terms of entertainment, if the miraculous had tested social, ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical orders, unleashing the imagination, in literature and in iconography. To study this theme Orvieto seemed an ideal place, because of its rich expressions of art and architecture that propose suggestive questions. The reflection took place over the long term, well beyond the Middle Ages and over a wide geographical spectrum, from Western Europe to the New World. The volume presents a mosaic of themes and questions around the presence of the miracle in society, focusing attention on concepts such as verification, the strategies to transform a body into a holy body, the reticences and strong suspicions towards the passage from the natural to the supernatural ; as well as the relations between the miraculous, the marvelous and the admirable , at the service of religious purposes, political and ecclesiastical in its various forms and contingencies; on the background of the great interpretative traditions of Christian thought from St. Augustine onwards. Ugolino di prete Ilario e Giovanni di Buccio Leonardelli / Antonio Bianchini e Luigi Lais, Il papa espone pubblicamente il corporale. Or-vieto, Duomo, Cappella del Corporale (© Opera del Duomo di Orvieto) m e d i E V I Il nostro secolo ha raggiunto una consapevo-lezza del significato del Medioevo che la co-scienza intellettuale europea aveva smarrito; fuori dalle maglie dell'ideologia, il Medioevo si scopre popolato di differenze, tempo di pa-radossi, grande fucina di idee, di stili di vita e di forme letterarie. Il Medioevo è plurale. Più di ogni altra epoca storica esso è capace di tenere insieme grandi opposizioni e in que-sta pluralità cerca il suo senso nella storia uni-versale delle civiltà. Plurali dovranno essere gli strumenti critici da mettere in opera per comprendere la sua tradizione letteraria e per aprire i panorami della sua storia culturale. Con questo spirito e con un'esigenza di sperimentazione che ri-veli il senso degli studi storici nel nostro tempo, la S.I.S.M.E.L. inaugura una nuova collana, che parla del Medioevo declinandolo in «mediEvi». The Middle Ages is a multi-faceted era. We discover in it a fount of ideas, lifestyles, and literary genres, all teeming with diversity and paradox. Accordingly, the critical tools we apply to understand its literary traditions and to open panoramas on its cultural history should be equally multi-faceted. Guided by a spirit of exploration and experimentation, S.I.S.M.E.L. inaugurates a new series that engages with the Middle Ages by redefining it as 'Middle Ages' in the plural «mediEvi». m e d i E V I mE 21 Books in the Series: 7. Gli italiani e la Terrasanta. A c. di A. Mu-sarra. Prefazione di F. Cardini 8. Il «Corpus Domini». Teologia, antropologia e politica. A c. di L. Andreani e A. Paravicini Bagliani 9. «Ragionar d'amore». Il lessico delle emozioni nella lirica medievale. A c. di A. Decaria e L. Leonardi 10. L'immagine di Alfonso il Magnanimo tra let-teratura e storia, tra Corona d'Aragona e Italia. / La imatge d'Alfons el Magnànim en la literatura i la historiografia entre la Corona d'Aragó i Itàlia. A c. di F. Delle Donne e J. Torró Torrent 11. Il secolo di Carlo Magno. Istituzioni, lettera-ture e cultura del tempo carolingio. A c. di I. Pa-gani e F. Santi 12. B. Luiselli, Romanobarbarica. Scritti scelti. A c. di A. Bruzzone e M. L. Fele 13. Tradurre dal latino nel Medioevo italiano. Translatio studii e procedure linguistiche. A c. di L. Leonardi e S. Cerullo 14. Latinidad medieval hispánica. Ed. de J. F. Mesa Sanz 15. I confini della lirica. Tempi, luoghi, tradizione della poesia romanza. A c. di A. Decaria e C. Lagomarsini 16. Catalogazione, storia della scrittura, storia del libro. I manoscritti datati d'Italia vent'anni dopo. A c. di T. De Robertis e N. Giovè Marchioli 17. «Moribus antiquis sibi me fecere poetam». Al-bertino Mussato nel VII centenario dell'incorona-zione poetica (Padova 1315-2015).
