I am an intellectual historian, with a specialisation in the pre-modern history of science, technology, and medicine (Antiquity to the 18th century).
My work focuses predominantly on medieval and early modern conceptual history, visualisation of the body, practices of quantification and precision instrument making as well as anatomical dissection and Latin palaeography. My interests extend more broadly to the role that classical and medieval philosophy played in the development of early modern ideas on logic, method, theory of matter, taxonomy, anatomy and physiology.
I studied at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, where I achieved a BA in Theoretical Philosophy (2005, summa cum laude), an MA in Philosophy of Science (2008, summa cum laude) and a PhD in History of Philosophy and History of Ideas (2012, summa cum laude), with a thesis on the influence of Galen’s medicine and psychology on the late-Renaissance philosophy.
I held positions as Postdoctoral and Research Fellow at The Warburg Institute University of London, the University of Exeter, the Folger Institute in Washington DC, the Edward Worth Library in Dublin, and the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg.
I was awarded Visiting Fellowships at the University of Cambridge (Department of History and Philosophy of Science - HPS), the University of Valencia (López Piñero Institute), the University of Bucharest (Institute for Advanced Research in the Humanities - IRH-ICUB), and the University of Padua (Dipartimento di Scienze Cardio-Toracico-Vascolari e Sanità Pubblica). In addition, I am an Affiliated Scholar at the University of Cambridge (HPS) and hold a honorary fellowship at the University of Exeter.
At present I am Senior Fellow at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg working as Principal Investigator (Eigene Stelle) on the project "Measuring the World by Degrees. Intensity in Early Modern Medicine and Natural Philosophy (1400-1650)" funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Project no: 461231785).
In 2018 I founded the 'Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance', an institute of advanced research in medical humanities and the history of science. Based at the Domus Comeliana in Pisa, the CSMBR is funded by a private charity, the Institutio Santoriana Fondazione Comel, and co-funded by international partners such as Yale University (USA), the University of Exeter (UK), the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (Germany), the University of Parma (Italy) and the Studio Firmano for the History of Medicine and Science (Italy), operating on a global scale.
I am also co-editor in chief of the series 'Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine' (Springer Nature), and co-editor of the Journal 'Sudhoffs Archiv - Journal for the History of Science and Medicine', which is the oldest continuously published journal for the history of science in the world.
As a junior instructor in Rome (2006-2012), I convened modules on ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy and culture, teaching to undergraduates, postgraduates and adult learners alike. Most recently, as an Adjunct Professor (Exeter, Bucharest, Wurzburg: 2018-2020), I have been teaching modules on Early Modern Italian Culture and Society, as well as on Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition, on Galen and early modern medicine, and on German Idealism (2019-2020). Currently (2018 to present), I lecture on Historical Foundations of Medical Theory and Practice ("Historisches Grundlagen ärztlichen Denkens und Handelns") at the Insitute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg.
Other than in the history and philosophy of science, I pursued a career as a musician and musicologist. I hold a degree in choral direction and my expertise encompasses areas such as composition, musicology, musical direction and palaeography. In my capacity as a director and musicologist, in 2014 I issued the world prémiere CD on the unpublished manuscripts by Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) discovered at Palazzo Altemps in Rome: "Gregorio Allegri, Unpublished Works from the 'Collectio Altaemps’ ", Musica Flexanima Ensemble, TACTUS Records Italy (https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=TC550007)
More info:
Address: Institut für Geschichte der Medizin
Julius-Maximilians Universität Würzburg
Oberer Neubergweg 10A,
97074 Würzburg, Germany
My work focuses predominantly on medieval and early modern conceptual history, visualisation of the body, practices of quantification and precision instrument making as well as anatomical dissection and Latin palaeography. My interests extend more broadly to the role that classical and medieval philosophy played in the development of early modern ideas on logic, method, theory of matter, taxonomy, anatomy and physiology.
I studied at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, where I achieved a BA in Theoretical Philosophy (2005, summa cum laude), an MA in Philosophy of Science (2008, summa cum laude) and a PhD in History of Philosophy and History of Ideas (2012, summa cum laude), with a thesis on the influence of Galen’s medicine and psychology on the late-Renaissance philosophy.
I held positions as Postdoctoral and Research Fellow at The Warburg Institute University of London, the University of Exeter, the Folger Institute in Washington DC, the Edward Worth Library in Dublin, and the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg.
I was awarded Visiting Fellowships at the University of Cambridge (Department of History and Philosophy of Science - HPS), the University of Valencia (López Piñero Institute), the University of Bucharest (Institute for Advanced Research in the Humanities - IRH-ICUB), and the University of Padua (Dipartimento di Scienze Cardio-Toracico-Vascolari e Sanità Pubblica). In addition, I am an Affiliated Scholar at the University of Cambridge (HPS) and hold a honorary fellowship at the University of Exeter.
At present I am Senior Fellow at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg working as Principal Investigator (Eigene Stelle) on the project "Measuring the World by Degrees. Intensity in Early Modern Medicine and Natural Philosophy (1400-1650)" funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Project no: 461231785).
In 2018 I founded the 'Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance', an institute of advanced research in medical humanities and the history of science. Based at the Domus Comeliana in Pisa, the CSMBR is funded by a private charity, the Institutio Santoriana Fondazione Comel, and co-funded by international partners such as Yale University (USA), the University of Exeter (UK), the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (Germany), the University of Parma (Italy) and the Studio Firmano for the History of Medicine and Science (Italy), operating on a global scale.
I am also co-editor in chief of the series 'Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine' (Springer Nature), and co-editor of the Journal 'Sudhoffs Archiv - Journal for the History of Science and Medicine', which is the oldest continuously published journal for the history of science in the world.
As a junior instructor in Rome (2006-2012), I convened modules on ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy and culture, teaching to undergraduates, postgraduates and adult learners alike. Most recently, as an Adjunct Professor (Exeter, Bucharest, Wurzburg: 2018-2020), I have been teaching modules on Early Modern Italian Culture and Society, as well as on Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition, on Galen and early modern medicine, and on German Idealism (2019-2020). Currently (2018 to present), I lecture on Historical Foundations of Medical Theory and Practice ("Historisches Grundlagen ärztlichen Denkens und Handelns") at the Insitute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg.
Other than in the history and philosophy of science, I pursued a career as a musician and musicologist. I hold a degree in choral direction and my expertise encompasses areas such as composition, musicology, musical direction and palaeography. In my capacity as a director and musicologist, in 2014 I issued the world prémiere CD on the unpublished manuscripts by Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) discovered at Palazzo Altemps in Rome: "Gregorio Allegri, Unpublished Works from the 'Collectio Altaemps’ ", Musica Flexanima Ensemble, TACTUS Records Italy (https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=TC550007)
More info:
Address: Institut für Geschichte der Medizin
Julius-Maximilians Universität Würzburg
Oberer Neubergweg 10A,
97074 Würzburg, Germany
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The anthropological vision Galen’ laid out in these texts was sufficient to shift the attention of early modern physicians and philosophers from the Medieval ‘narrative of the body’, whereby the body is seen as a text, to an organic substratum to be cut in pieces on the anatomy table and to be eventually rendered as an image.
Books by Fabrizio Bigotti
By challenging a traditional historiographical account that described Renaissance Galenism in terms of decline and fall, this study argues for a new assessment of Galen's legacy, also read through the lens of those who opposed or reacted critically to it and thus contributed to the shaping of important aspects of the early modern debate on anthropology, ethics, psychology and even quantified experimentation. Among these many innovations and transformations, the notion of 'ingenuity' (ingenium) deserves particular attention. Hidden within this corporeal, inherent and heritable inclination, two major themes that side disquietingly with the development of modern subjectivity can be identified: the 'corporeality of the body', and the common destiny of humans and animals.
More generally, this study offers a contribution to the ongoing debate on the role and value of medical history, arguing in favour of the concept of 'historical translatability' in balancing the "longue durée" of traditions with the chaotic interactions of individual thinkers.
Papers by Fabrizio Bigotti
The anthropological vision Galen’ laid out in these texts was sufficient to shift the attention of early modern physicians and philosophers from the Medieval ‘narrative of the body’, whereby the body is seen as a text, to an organic substratum to be cut in pieces on the anatomy table and to be eventually rendered as an image.
By challenging a traditional historiographical account that described Renaissance Galenism in terms of decline and fall, this study argues for a new assessment of Galen's legacy, also read through the lens of those who opposed or reacted critically to it and thus contributed to the shaping of important aspects of the early modern debate on anthropology, ethics, psychology and even quantified experimentation. Among these many innovations and transformations, the notion of 'ingenuity' (ingenium) deserves particular attention. Hidden within this corporeal, inherent and heritable inclination, two major themes that side disquietingly with the development of modern subjectivity can be identified: the 'corporeality of the body', and the common destiny of humans and animals.
More generally, this study offers a contribution to the ongoing debate on the role and value of medical history, arguing in favour of the concept of 'historical translatability' in balancing the "longue durée" of traditions with the chaotic interactions of individual thinkers.
the result of a continuous development rather than the product of a single
brilliant mind, and yet scholars have often credited the Italian physician Santorio Santori (1561–1636) with the invention of the first thermometers. The
purpose of using such instruments within the traditional context of Galenic
medicine, however, has not been investigated and scholars have consistently
assumed that, being subject to the influence of atmospheric pressure and environmental heat, Santorio’s instruments provided unreliable measurements. The discovery that, as early as 1612, Santorio describes all vacuum-related
phenomena as effects of the atmospheric pressure of the air, provides ample
room for reconsidering his role in the development of precision instruments
and the early history of thermometry in particular. By drawing on a variety of written and visual sources, some unpublished, in the first part of this article I argue that Santorio’s appreciation of phenomena related to the weight of the
air allowed him to construct the first thermometers working as sealed devices.
Finally, in the second part, I consider Santorio’s use of the thermometer as
related to the seventeenth-century medical practice and his way to measure the
temperature as based on a wide sample of individuals.
Below there are some links and a short video introduction concerning the relevance of the project.
Winter School Series - Humanities for the Future
12-15 February 2024
Registration is now open for Studio Digital Humanities Lab, the new Winter School format designed to meet the needs of those, both inside and outside academia, who are facing the digital revolution.
Its interdisciplinary format allows participants to get a feel for the potential of new media, while acquiring basic coding skills, knowledge of 3D modelling, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and key concepts in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLM), as well as tools for communicating with experts in the field.
The possibilities opened up by digital humanities are vast, and worth considering for anyone writing a new project, seeking funding or simply new means of implementing existing ideas.
DEADLINES
12 December 2023 (Early Bird Deadline)
31 January 2024 (Regular Registration)
BURSARIES
Bursaries to attend the winter school are available via the competitive Comèl Grant
https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/grants-and-awards/comel-grant/
Comèl Grant Deadline: 15 November
INFO AND REGISTRATION AT:
https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/events/studiolo-digital-lab-2024/
Central to the various cosmologies that developed throughout the period 1200-1600 was the idea that phenomena are subject to a variation in intensity. Intensity determined why objects were of higher or lesser temperature, speed, brightness, porous or dense texture, pitch, and so forth. And yet, intensity also had wider metaphysical, theological, political and cultural implications: it was instrumental to justify the order of the cosmos, the necessity of evil, and the need for hierarchies in maintaining social peace, with shades of colour especially used to mark social status, both in garments and buildings.
Linking back to Greek philosophy and medicine (i.e Aristotle, Galen, Dioscorides) theories of intensity (intensio et remissio formarum) blossomed in the late middle ages but remained vital in early modern philosophy (e.g. Galileo, Leibniz) up to the eighteenth century, with Baumgarten and Kant attempting at measuring the quantity of virtue (quantitas virtutis) necessary to the human subject to perceive (aesthetica) an object in the external world.
On the one hand, medieval and early modern theories of intensity developed an ancient desideratum to classify the world in a hierarchical order, also known as scala naturae or ‘the great chain of being’. At the extremes of the ‘chain’ were located respectively God, as the metaphysical grantor of order and the embodiment of perfection, and matter, embodying imperfection and chaos. However, on the other hand, the pre-modern period moved beyond previous attempts, as the cosmos is now spatialised and measurable. As comprehended within two opposites (i.e. perfection/imperfection, hot/cold, up/down, etc.), change occurs within “a range” (latitudo), wherein objects acquire or lose certain “degrees” (gradus) of the quality that is being intensified; thus hotter or brighter objects are so because they participate more in the specific properties (formae) of heat or light. In this sense, it is significant that, while the modern cosmos was consciously built on “number”, “weight” and “measure”, the fabric of the pre-modern world was textured in grades and shades.
Grades and shades were at once quantities and values, representing perfection or imperfection in theology, purity or impurity of distillation in alchemical preparations, physiological or pathological functioning of the body, where humours were refined by cooking and where everything, from fever to pulse frequency, was ordered in degrees of intensity. In cosmology, light was given a preeminent role, as Robert Grosseteste (1175-1253) developed his cosmology of light where intensity shapes every aspect of the universe, and Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) ordered Inferno in rounds of degrading sin while Paradiso in spheres of ascending beatitude.
A new vision of the cosmos prompted a larger use of visual aids, such as diagrams both to visualise change and to measure intensity. Health starts being measured in latitudes, the temperature in degrees, herbs and drugs by their colours and the intensity of their effects on the human body. Colours are used to represent aspects of the material world but also to highlight status, dignity, conceptual clarity, as well as religious and seasonal cycles while the sounds of the French Ars nova (14th century) intensify the rhythmic capacity of music by developing a new virtuosity, Flemish masters establish the multilayered notation of polyphony (15th century) and the Venetian Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli at the end of the 16th-century start experimenting with piano and forte.
Although instrumental to the constitution of the pre-modern cosmos, intensity and associated theories have remained poorly studied in modern scholarship, with the bulk of studies available in German only. Attempting to fill the gap and to deliver the thematic fullness of the pre-modern cosmos to a larger audience, this summer school features world-leading experts discussing relevant aspects of intensity in alchemy, medicine, theology, natural philosophy, music, art, optics, as well as social and religious settings.
The conference will hence allow the participants to analyse how Renaissance writers had moved on from Galen’s understanding, as well as where and why they had not. Speakers will be looking at translations and how these reflect different approaches and/or traditions. Theories of action of drugs on the body will also be taken into account, viz. how these were modified in relation to Arabic pharmacology. A special emphasis will be laid on how plants were classified and visualised. Finally, attention will be devoted to the commercialisation of drugs, simples and recipes as developed within Galenic therapy.
Info and registration at: https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/events/conferences-webinars/em-galens-pharmacology/
Dr. Anne-Katrin Ebert, the CSMBR Sponsors a panel on medical history titled EXTREME BODIES: Norm, Excess, and Transgression in Western Medicine"
Long before being measured, the body has been a unit of measurement and a canon in that it defines the norm within which health can be maintained and life can persist. As all in-formal parameters, whose existence and value predate their conceptual manipulation – their apprehension being individual, private, implicit, and prelinguistic – the body canon has defined the range of what is normal and abnormal in terms of excess and defect. However, the existence of different ways to express the normal and the abnormal across societies and cultures, in learned as well as in popular literature, inevitably plays a role in how the body is experienced, generating an array of cultural presuppositions, stereotypes, and expectations. Amongst these, a moral and political component should also be taken into account. Indeed, violating a norm implies an ethical stance towards perfecting, challenging, or transgressing accepted conventions. An example of this is how corpulence and fat have been dealt with across the ages, being used to highlight the belonging to the upper class, or - on the contrary - gluttony, intemperance, and incapability of abiding by shared societal mores. Sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR), this panel presents some of these entanglements, showing how the implications of the ‘nature vs nurture debate’ have been a constant preoccupation in Western medicine and culture more generally.
CSMBR Summer School – 21-24 July 2021
Domvs Comeliana, Pisa
Keynote Speakers:
Martin Kemp (University of Oxford), confirmed
Michael Stolberg (Julius Maximilians–Universität, Würzburg), confirmed
Giulia Martina Weston (The Courtauld Institute of Art, London), confirmed
Organiser:
Fabrizio Bigotti (CSMBR, Julius Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, University of Exeter)
CONTACTS
For further information about the event contact the organizer at fb@csmbr.fondazionecomel.org or email info@csmbr.fondazionecomel.org with the subject SUMMER SCHOOL 2021
THE KILN, THE ALEMBIC, AND THE CLOCKWORK
Early Modern Representations of the Body and its Changing Matter
29-31 March 2019
Organisers: Fabrizio Bigotti & Fabiola Zurlini
The summer school will explore how the representation of the body and its functions changed from antiquity to the early modern period and how technology altered the perception of what we are as human animals. By adopting three of the most iconic analogies ever used in the history of medicine to represent the human body, The Kiln, the Alembic, and the Clockwork will explore the early modern imagery of the body, in connection to the methods of investigation and its overlapping with disciplines such as alchemy and astronomy. Particular attention will be devoted to processes such as the combination and the concoction of humours (the kiln), distillation and perspiration (the alembic) and the mechanical action of innate heat (the clockwork) whilst considering, for each analogy, the visual impact it exerted on the Renaissance and early modern representation of human physiology.
The summer school is directed to undergraduates, postgraduates as well as PhDs wishing to deepen their knowledge of history of medicine and its connection to other disciplines of knowledge in the early modern period. Sources and papers will be pre-circulated in order for attendees to engage fruitfully in conversation with speakers in a roundtable at the end of the day.
The Summer School will be held in the outstanding location of DOMVS COMELIANA in Piazza dei Miracoli (Pisa) with the provisional programme available here.
Confirmed Speakers: Vivian Nutton (First Moscow State Medical University)
Hiro Hirai (Radboud University)
Fabrizio Bigotti (University of Exeter)
Fabio Zampieri (University of Padua)
Fabiola Zurlini (Studio Firmano for the History of Medicine and Science)
Registration fee to attend the Summer School is €244 and includes the cost of all breaks and lunches. Payment can be made directly to Fondazione Comel via Bank Transfer with the specification CSMBR 2019 by the registration deadline of Saturday 30th June 2018. For information and details please contact csmbr@fondazionecomel.org or f.bigotti@exeter.ac.uk
Santorio Fellowship 2018
The International Summer School runs along with the 2018 edition of the Santorio Fellowship for Medical Humanities and Science, which will be advertised separately. Selected winners will attend the Summer School for free and will receive a travel grant up to €250. Applicants must send a cover letter, a copy of their CV and a referee letter to santoriofellowship@fondazionecomel.org by the 31st of October 2018. Winners will be notified in early November. For information and details please contact Dr Fabrizio Bigotti at f.bigotti@exeter.ac.uk.
Medical Historiography in Europe in the Twentieth century
History of the medical profession in Europe
In chiusura di programma, il pomeriggio sarà concluso da un talk di Fabrizio Bigotti (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg), direttore del Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance, a cui il Dipartimento DUSIC dell’Università di Parma afferisce.
Moderano le sessioni Fabrizio Bigotti, Diego Varini e Laura Madella.
phenomena, from tides and weather to bodily fluids and health. Conversant with the doctrine of ‘critical days’ – i.e. periods influenced by lunar and planetary conjunctions – medieval physicians employed a variety of astrological predictions to optimise medical treatments. Central to their discussion was the idea that bodily fluids, like tidal movements, are influenced by the moon, with specific lunar phases deemed optimal for bloodletting. In this talk, I will analyse a 15thcentury manuscript belonging to Viennese Quodlibetal traditions, the "Quaestio Utrum flebothomia
magis competat in prima quadra lunationis" (MS Melk 958, cc. 447-450). The manuscript examines the ideal timing for bloodletting with regards to lunar positions and seasons, ultimately advocating that spring, because of the air moisture, is the best time to administer it. Yet the power of the moon and the planets on the body provides the author, most likely Bertholdus Deichsler, a 15thcentury Master of Arts, with a motivation to further explore the effects of planets on every living being, shedding light on how the cosmos and the environment shaped health and medicine
in the pre-modern period.
Kick-Off Meeting of the Italian National Research Project "Diet-Ethics. How Early Modern Ideas Shaped European Food Ethics"
Session 1 | 17 October 2023, 3PM CET Time
Christoph Sander • Least Attractive? Aristotelian Presuppositions to Explain Magnetic Movements
Olivier Ribordy • “Nothing New Under the Sun”? Observations of Sunspots and New Views on the World in the Early-modern Period
Session 2 | 7 November 2023, 3PM CET Time
Daniel Di Liscia • The Notion of impetus in Late Medieval and Early-modern Science
Sylvain Roudaut • The Transformations of Heat in Late Scholastic Natural Philosophy
Session 3 | 14 November 2023, 3PM CET Time
Erik Åkerlund • Matter in Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza
Enrico Pasini • Aristotle Meets Infinity
Session 4 | 28 November 2023, 3PM CET Time
Fabrizio Bigotti • Life is the Capacity to Resist Decay. Medical Adaptations of Potentia and Capacitas from Late Scholasticism to Stahl
Yuan Tao • Elusive “Auditory Species” in Jesuit Theories of Sound
Session 5 | 12 December 2023, 3PM CET Time
Pietro D. Omodeo • Reflections on the Transformation of Cosmological Concepts in Renaissance Naturalism
Iolanda Ventura • Aristotelian Vocabulary in Silvestro Mauro’s Aristotelis Opera
in the practice of "chori spezzati" (‘split choirs’), the use of two or more choirs, separated in different spaces, which were used together or alternately to create a grandiose effect. The practice reached its peak in Venice at the end of the 16th century with the work of Andrea Gabrieli (c.1533-1586) and his nephew Giovanni (c.1566-1612), and from there spread throughout Europe via Giovanni’s German pupils such as Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) and Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672). At St Mark’s, where they both worked, the two Gabrieli made the most of the spatial characteristics of the basilica, experimenting with the dynamics that could be created by multiplying the masses of sound in the various corners of the building. Historically, this led to one of the very first documented uses of dynamics in music (piano and forte), as can be seen, for example, in the "Sonata Pian e Forte" (Venice 1597) by Giovanni or even before in the "Aria della Battaglia" by Andrea (1590). As organists, Andrea and Giovanni were also keen instrumentalists, writing "canzoni da sonar" and consolidating the practice of substituting certain voices in the chorus with specific instruments: violins, trumpets, cornets for the higher
voices as opposed to viols, bassoons and trombones for the lower ones. This innovation allowed the musicians to add colours (dark or bright) to the instrumentation in order to emphasise the mood of certain passages. In this lecture we will analyse and listen to several compositions by Gabrieli and their contemporaries. No previous knowledge of Renaissance or Baroque music is required, only a willingness to engage with early music.
news travels around the world with the speed of a mouse click, it is easy to forget that this progress takes up less than a fraction of a second in human history. Two major innovations mark the difference between before and after: the industrial revolution, with the replacement of animal labour by automated work, and the decentralisation of human perception, which, from the 17th century onwards, began to be mediated, if not replaced, by instruments. Consequently, while for us the problem of overcoming distances is simply a technical problem of finding the right instruments, in the pre-modern world it means coping with the limited capacity of our sense perception and the fatigue of manual labour. Nature implies limits, and so does the cosmos, which is the ultimate limit of all that exists and can be known. In such a cosmos, “far” and “near” refer to objective limitations in the capacity to see, hear, grasp, manipulate, and ultimately to achieve a result. Everything exists within maximum and minimum limits ("minimum"/"maximum naturae") of matter, time, and space, against which the intensity of human effort ("potentia"/"capacitas") and the priority of goals must be carefully gauged, lest we overwhelm man with impossible tasks and set ourselves up for failure. In this talk I will explore some of the conceptual and practical implications of reaching the limits of natural capacity in the pre-modern world, and what lessons we can learn from it today.
Answering these questions, 13th-century authors, such as Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, tried to harmonize ‘borderline species’ within the Christian Neoplatonic outlook by interpreting natural dynamics as degrees of perfection. On the one side, the comparison between human perfection and animal imperfection allowed to determine the boundaries of pygmy’s cognitive skills; on the other side, animal perfection (in relation to plant imperfection) provided a template to investigate plants’ life, and go deeper into the powers of vegetative soul.
The conference features a presentation of Catalan databases on alchemy, emphasises the unity of Western European culture, and delves into the many facets of experimentalism in alchemy and medicine.
Spotlighting recent academic discoveries, it will provide scholars with a platform to deepen their understanding of pre-modern alchemy and potentially uncover new insights into the history of medical alchemy.
Ongaro’s life and oeuvre stand as a testament to scholarly dedication, resilience, and pioneering research in the history of medicine. Ongaro masterfully balanced his roles in the medical and academic fields, making seminal contributions that greatly enriched our understanding of medicine’s past, particularly the medical school of Padua.
As a doctor, he led the Centro Trasfusionale in Padova (now Unità Operativa Complessa Immunotrasfusionale), where his work with HIV-positive patients marked a significant period in medical treatment under challenging conditions. His academic journey was equally distinguished; obtaining his habilitation as a university professor (libera docenza) in 1962, he embarked on a career that would make a lasting impact on Italian and International medical scholarship.
Diagnosed with a rare form of multiple sclerosis around the same time, Ongaro faced profound personal challenges. Yet, his condition never impeded his scholarly output, which includes extensive publications that cover a broad spectrum of medical history. His translations of major medical works (Harvey’s "De motu cordis", 2004), the discovery of important manuscripts (Prospero Alpini’s "De medico presagio"), and countless papers and volumes have provided invaluable insights into the field. Alongside Loris Premuda, Onagaro was instrumental in the creation of the Centro Prospero Alpini in Marostica, and his authoritative volumes on Alpini, Wirsung, and medieval and early modern anatomy, remain landmarks in the discipline.
Ongaro’s work is marked by meticulous research into both original and secondary sources often conducted in multiple languages (including English, German, Spanish, French), at a time when global connectivity and resource exchange were far more limited than today. Despite the physical limitations imposed by his condition, his intellectual curiosity and dedication remained unbounded. His merits earned him various recognitions, including a fellowship from the Accademia Galileiana of Arts and Sciences and a membership in the Centre for the Study of the History of the University of Padua.
Through his life and work, Ongaro exemplifies the essence of perseverance, intellectual rigour, and a profound commitment to exploring the complexities of medical history.
This conference, co-organised with the Centro per la Storia dell’Università di Padova and the Studio Firmano, with sponsorship from the Accademia Galileiana, aims to delve into the many facets of his contributions, reflecting on the enduring impact of his legacy and the inspiration it continues to offer.
Winter School Series - Humanities for the Future
12-15 February 2024
Registration is now open for Studio Digital Humanities Lab, the new Winter School format designed to meet the needs of those, both inside and outside academia, who are facing the digital revolution.
Its interdisciplinary format allows participants to get a feel for the potential of new media, while acquiring basic coding skills, knowledge of 3D modelling, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and key concepts in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLM), as well as tools for communicating with experts in the field.
The possibilities opened up by digital humanities are vast, and worth considering for anyone writing a new project, seeking funding or simply new means of implementing existing ideas.
DEADLINES
12 December 2023 (Early Bird Deadline)
31 January 2024 (Regular Registration)
BURSARIES
Bursaries to attend the winter school are available via the competitive Comèl Grant
https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/grants-and-awards/comel-grant/
Comèl Grant Deadline: 15 November
INFO AND REGISTRATION AT:
https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/events/studiolo-digital-lab-2024/
Central to the various cosmologies that developed throughout the period 1200-1600 was the idea that phenomena are subject to a variation in intensity. Intensity determined why objects were of higher or lesser temperature, speed, brightness, porous or dense texture, pitch, and so forth. And yet, intensity also had wider metaphysical, theological, political and cultural implications: it was instrumental to justify the order of the cosmos, the necessity of evil, and the need for hierarchies in maintaining social peace, with shades of colour especially used to mark social status, both in garments and buildings.
Linking back to Greek philosophy and medicine (i.e Aristotle, Galen, Dioscorides) theories of intensity ("intensio et remissio formarum") blossomed in the late middle ages but remained vital in early modern philosophy (e.g. Galileo, Leibniz) up to the eighteenth century, with Baumgarten and Kant attempting at measuring the quantity of virtue ("quantitas virtutis") necessary to the human subject to perceive ("aesthetica") an object in the external world.
In this lecture we will be exploring the background of his inventions and scientific instruments, including early precision medical devices (pulsimeters, hygrometers, thermometers, anemometers) how they worked and what impact they had on the subsequent generations of physicians and natural philosophers.
Santorio was one of the pioneers of modern experimentation as he experimented daily on himself and other subjects for over twenty five years. Seeking certainty, he devised and constructed new instruments, such as the ‘weighing chair’ (statera medica), the hygrometer, the first graded thermometer, and the ‘pulsilogium’ (an early pulsimeter).
Through these instruments, he managed to assess each of the many parameters involved in the complex calculation of the perspiratio insensibilis (insensible perspiration of the body). Relying on his quantitative experiences, Santorio envisaged the body as a clockwork and explored its main functions by means of mathematical parameters (numero, pondere et mensura) depending in turn on his theory of particles and corpuscles.
By highlighting the importance of these theories and instruments, we shall look at the context of Santorio’s life and works as well as the impact of his legacy on the history of medicine and natural philosophy.
The conference will allow speakers to see precisely how Renaissance writers had moved from Galen’s understanding, and where they had not. The event is open to external attendees as well as students. Speakers will explore questions of what a quality, a humour, and a substance is - in antiquity and in the Renaissance - and to establish what the understanding of them should now be in the light in contemporary research.
This seminar will present how and why the pre-modern body was measured and explore how new methods of measuring, quantifying, and understanding the body affected early modern medical theory and practice. The individual papers presented will all explore how different aspects of the body such as fat, blood, and excreta, were measured using various instruments and research methods.
As such, this seminar will address a myriad of questions, relating to how new instruments and methods of measurements affected medical theory and practice, to what extent they challenged or reinforced existing knowledge, how measurements helped to determine what was healthy and unhealthy, normal and abnormal, and how researching this can help us understand how early modern society understood the relationship between the body and its environment.
Yijie Huang
Expressing the Pulse in Seventeenth-Century England: Idioms, Numbers, & Measurement
Opening Galen’s corpus, one would be impressed by the extensive variations of the quality of the pulse. Big/small, strong/weak, quick/slow, frequent/rare, hard/soft, even/uneven, regular/irregular, gazelling, double-hammer. Many of these descriptions extended into early modern medical treatises, guiding yet also disturbing pulse diagnosis during the period. Between the textual pulse-lore and the hands-on experience of the wrist, early modern medical practitioners sought for ways to justify the perceptibility of traditional pulse idioms and articulate their own pulse perception. This paper examines this process by focussing on the English physician John Floyer’s (1649-1734) The Physician’s Pulse-Watch (1707 & 1710), in which Floyer innovatively used numbers in addition to idioms in explicating diverse types of pulses and their respective physical indications. Some scholarships appreciate Floyer’s numerical analysis of the pulse as a significant shift from the long-lasting old paradigm of pulse diagnosis centred by subjective experience and qualitative rendering. This paper challenges the view by delving into the close interaction between numbers and idioms in Floyer’s pulse study, based on which it further discusses the hybrid episteme of his pulse-counting practice. It will show that by designing the combined form of pulse characteristics, Floyer strove to incorporate earlier philosophical conceptions of health into the recent empirical principle of investigating nature and the body. His deployment of the quantitative renderings contained little intention of questioning or replacing the experiential approach of expressing the pulse. Rather, they revealed notable capacity to reinforce experience as the ultimate standard to organise and make sense of its variety.
Holly Fletcher
Food and Fat: Creating Body Size in Early Modern Germany
Contemporary discussions concerning body size, and particularly fatness, are dominated by questions of food consumption and diet. Today, the relationship between food and fat is so deeply embedded in both medical and cultural perceptions of what determines a person’s body size that other contributing factors are frequently overlooked. In this paper, I examine whether this was similarly the case in early modern Germany. Were perceptions of fatness and thinness dominated by ideas about food? While food played a crucial role in the creation of body size it was far from being the only determining factor. I will explore the important distinction contemporaries made between ‘naturally’ and ‘unnaturally’ fat bodies, which drew on understandings of the four humours and the six non-naturals, thereby discussing the significance of additional factors such as sleep, bathing and the emotions for influencing body size. Finally, I will approach body size from a neo-materialist perspective, to consider how the construction of bodily form could be understood in relation to early modern people’s material entanglements with their physical surroundings. The fattening of human bodies could be understood in close relationship with the fattening of the animals which they consumed and the ‘fatness’ of the land upon which those animals grazed. Body size thus contributed to understandings of the ‘extended’ material early modern body which went far beyond merely food consumption.
Marsha Wubbels
A Weighty Matter: Understanding Santorio’s ‘Healthful Standard’ and Early Modern Body-Weighing Practices
Today, we consider our body weight to be important information of medical significance. At just a glance at the scales, we may categorise ourselves, healthy or unhealthy, underweight, overweight, or obese. The idea that our body weight can inform us on the state of our health is at least as old as the first medically motivated weighing experiment, undertaken by Santorio Santori over the course of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. The connection that we make between weight and fatness was not always so intrinsic, however. This paper will discuss early modern concerns with body weight and weight-watching and argue that these concerns differed significantly from our own. It will do so by first exploring Santorio weighing experiment and the aphorisms it wrought. It will assess the extent to which later weight-watching practices were still influenced by these aphorisms and argue that body-weighing practices remained ‘Santorian’ in nature until the late eighteenth century, when the motivations and methods of weight-watchers started to more resemble our own. As will be shown, body weight did not yet play a significant role in the medicalisation of fatness, and early modern English society did not yet share our concept of ‘overweight’. Instead, individuals pursued a perfect balance between their ingesta and excreta and used the balance to monitor this, a balance Santorio referred to as the ‘healthful Standard’.
Alexander Pyrges
Using Big Numbers. The Meaning and Purpose of Weight Indications in Medical Texts on Corpulence, c. 1600-1900
While historians of corpulence commonly regard the twentieth century as the age when quantification began to dominate medical approaches to corpulence, individual weight indications appear in medical texts on corpulence as early as the seventeenth century. The earliest weight indications were imported from outside the medical realm, more precisely, from the public discourse on monstrous bodies. Within medical reasoning, the trademark weight indications of a few publicized prodigies of nature served to underscore both the existence and the nature of corpulence as a pathology. The consequences of entangling the medical discussions on corpulence with the discourse on monsters were far-reaching, however, as it shaped both the approach to and the rhetorical framing of corpulence within medicine for at least two centuries.
As weight indications multiplied during the eighteenth century, physician authors strung them together to form the numerical basis of exceptional weight biographies, first of famous contemporaries but subsequently of common patients as well. Biographically paralleled with medical interventions, series of declining weight indications came to allegorize therapeutic success in a growing number of case descriptions. During the nineteenth century, a handful of authors attempted to expand the medical potential of weight indications beyond the mere observational. They had very limited success in the field of obesity medicine, however, as the majority of experts saw but little therapeutic and no diagnostic merits in weight measurements and indications. Thus, although weight indications were firmly established in the medical literature on corpulence by the late nineteenth century, the measurement of weight existed only in the margins of clinical obesity medicine.
Dr. Anne-Katrin Ebert, the CSMBR Sponsors a panel on medical history titled EXTREME BODIES: Norm, Excess, and Transgression in Western Medicine"
Long before being measured, the body has been a unit of measurement and a canon in that it defines the norm within which health can be maintained and life can persist. As all in-formal parameters, whose existence and value predate their conceptual manipulation – their apprehension being individual, private, implicit, and prelinguistic – the body-canon has defined the range of what is normal and abnormal in terms of excess and defect. However, the existence of different ways to express the normal and the abnormal across societies and cultures, in learned as well as in popular literature, inevitably plays a role in how the body is experienced, generating an array of cultural presuppositions, stereotypes, and expectations. Amongst these, a moral and political component should also be taken into account. Indeed, violating a norm implies an ethical stance towards perfecting, challenging, or transgressing accepted conventions. An example of this is how corpulence and fat have been dealt with across the ages, being used to highlight the belonging to the upper class, or - on the contrary - gluttony, intemperance, and incapability of abiding by shared societal mores. Sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR), this panel presents some of these entanglements, showing how the implications of the ‘nature vs nurture debate’ have been a constant preoccupation in Western medicine and culture more generally.
Is human nature something immutable or is it the product of history and social conventions?
Do humans even have a nature? And what does it mean for humans to have a nature and to what extent does biology condition what we are?
Is human nature something immutable or is it the product of history and social conventions?
Is it desirable to use technology to enhance the desirable characteristics of the human species?
What instruments, images, analogies, models and literary strategies were used to further such a project?
How does the early modern debate on automata and man-machine (homme machine) predates the modern on transhumanism and posthumanism?
How does the debate evolve after the eighteenth century?
The 2022 round of the VivaMente Conference in the History of Ideas aims at exploring such questions from a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together scholars from different fields, interests and periods. The conference is thought to take place as an open debate, with keynote speakers discussing the early modern philosophical and ethical implications of mechanical philosophy and with attendees focusing on the modern and postmodern impact of the early modern debate. By doing so, the conference aims to bring the research about the automata up to date and to connect historians of philosophy, arts and literature with researchers of transhumanism and artificial intelligence.
Today, the characteristic tropes and patterns that once defined the course of early modern mechanical philosophy are witnessing an extraordinary resurgence of interest among scientists, scholars and lay people concerned with the fate of human beings. The reasons are numerous and of various kinds: the outstanding progress of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the pervasive influence of the Internet of things (IoT) and the combined synergy of neuroscience and nanotechnology, to mention only the most relevant ones. Philosophically speaking, the field of possibilities is growing by the day. If a new La Mettrie were to live today, his Homme-machine would have to cope with the exponential growth of experimental evidence and scientific theorizations.
Thus, this Vivamente Conference intends to shed new light on the early modern origins of automata, to discuss the impact of their legacy throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and, finally, to ask the fundamental question of how to update our knowledge – in both theoretical and moral terms – concerning automata and automation as we are confronted by a staggering and constantly evolving volume of information and innovations on the subject.
Discussions will also address the field of post-human and trans-human speculations. The future is looming with the possibility of increasingly sophisticated mechanical minds in addition to the more familiar – both philosophically and technologically – mechanical bodies.
Is human nature something immutable or is it the product of history and social conventions?
Do humans even have a nature? And what does it mean for humans to have a nature and to what extent does biology condition what we are?
Is it desirable to use technology to enhance the desirable characteristics of the human species?
What instruments, images, analogies, models and literary strategies were used to further such a project?
How does the early modern debate on automata and man-machine (homme machine) predates the modern on transhumanism and posthumanism?
How does the debate evolve after the eighteenth century?
The 2022 VivaMente Conference in the History of Ideas aims at exploring such questions from a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together scholars from different fields, interests and periods. The conference is thought to take place as an open debate, with keynote speakers discussing the early modern philosophical and ethical implications of mechanical philosophy and with attendees focusing on the modern and postmodern impact of the early modern debate. By doing so, the conference aims to bring the research about the automata up to date and to connect historians of philosophy, arts and literature with researchers of transhumanism and artificial intelligence. Today, the characteristic tropes and patterns that once defined the course of early modern mechanical philosophy are witnessing an extraordinary resurgence of interest among scientists, scholars and laypeople concerned with the fate of human beings. The reasons are numerous and of various kinds: the outstanding progress of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the pervasive influence of the Internet of things (IoT) and the combined synergy of neuroscience and nanotechnology, to mention only the most relevant ones. Philosophically speaking, the field of possibilities is growing by the day. If a new La Mettrie were to live today, his Homme-machine would have to cope with the exponential growth of experimental evidence and scientific theorizations.
This edition of the Vivamente Conference in the History of Ideas intends to shed new light on the early modern origins of automata, to discuss the impact of their legacy throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and, finally, to ask the fundamental question of how to update our knowledge – in both theoretical and moral terms – concerning automata and automation as we are confronted by a staggering and constantly evolving volume of information and innovations on the subject. Discussions will also address the field of post-human and trans-human speculations. The future is looming with the possibility of increasingly sophisticated mechanical minds in addition to the more familiar – both philosophically and technologically – mechanical bodies.
Thematically, the conference will address four major topics:
Mechanical philosophy and mechanistic thinking (origins, limits, perspectives, applications, ethical challenges);
Transcending the human in medicine, science, philosophy, art, literature, religion, etc.;
Normal, pathological and beyond: monsters, hybrid creatures and transhuman developments;
Images and metaphors of the above.
Conference Format
Hybrid Conference, with the possibility to partake remotely (Zoom).
Publication
Selected papers will be collected and proposed for publication as an edited volume for the series Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine (PSMEMM): https://link.springer.com/series/16206.
Application Process
info at: https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/events-and-activities/vivamente/vivamente_2022/
We welcome proposals for commented translations (if particularly relevant, even on a large scale) of medical and scientific texts into English (examples of original languages accepted are Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Syriac, as well as European vernaculars).
Starting from 2020, PSMEMM will host a section with books from young authors selected under the international scheme Santorio Award for Excellence in Research, which will award three of the best PhD theses in history of medicine and science with a cash prize a medal, a certificate and the opportunity to publish in the new series. Further details will soon be available at http://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/santorio-award-for-excellence-in-research/
Please contact psmemm@csmbr.fondazionecomel.org if you would like more information on the series, or if you would like to discuss a proposal.
PALGRAVE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN MEDICINE
Series Editors: Jonathan Barry & Fabrizio Bigotti
The series focuses on the intellectual tradition of western medicine as related to the philosophies, institutions, practices, and technologies that developed throughout the medieval and early modern period (500-1800). Partnered with the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR), it seeks to explore the range of interactions between various conceptualisations of the body, including their import for the arts (e.g. literature, painting, music, dance, and architecture) and the way different medical traditions overlapped and borrowed from each other. The series particularly welcomes contributions from young authors.
The editors will consider proposals for single monographs, as well as edited collections and translations/editions of texts, either at a standard length (70-120,000 words) or as Palgrave Pivots (up to 50,000 words).
For information psmemm@csmbr.fondazionecomel.org
The journal's approach is international and not limited to one period or one discipline. Works are published in German, English and French. The selection of the contributions follows the criteria of the peer review. Since 1961 the magazine has been accompanied by a series of supplements.
The module proposes a thematic study of some of the major figures of German Idealism, from the standpoint of their borrowing from and contributing to the nineteenth-century life sciences. In particular, the module features a reading of excerpts from Kant’s 'Critique of Judgment' („Kritik der Urteilskraft“) and Goethe's 'The Metamorphosis of Plants' („Versuch die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu erklären“), in addition to chapters of Schelling’s and Hegel's 'Philosophies of Nature'. Each class will be integrated with powerpoint presentations, illustrating the development of nineteenth-century botany, medicine, and biology, an outline of the basic terminology of German idealism as well as a schematic presentation of the secondary literature available on each topic.
Because this would be the first time that such an attempt is accomplished, the workshop is intended to gathering the different skills required by the undertaking and accordingly explore four main topics:
1) Technology and experimental practice in early modern period;
2) Craftsmanship and expertise required in rebuilding Santorio’s instruments;
3) Ways to collect results and how to get people involved in experiments;
4) General plane and timing.
Original article available at: https://thepracticeofmedicine.edwardworthlibrary.ie/treatments/santorio-on-the-6-non-naturals/
first time the Venetian doctor who invented the thermometer
and helped lay the foundations for modern
medical treatment also played a key role in shaping
our understanding of chemistry.
Con il completo sequenziamento del genoma umano (2003), assistiamo oggi ad una ingegnerizzazione del corpo che non riguarda solo le pratiche mediche ma, più in generale, l’essere umano. La coltivazione di tessuti e organi in laboratorio renderà entro pochi anni il trapianto un capitolo da manuale di storia della medicina, mentre la microchirurgia non invasiva renderà obsoleta la practica settoria nei termini in cui essa è stata praticata da Galeno ai giorni nostri.
Opere Inedite dai manoscritti della Collectio Altaemps
Musica Flexanima Ensemble
Dir Fabrizio Bigotti
Tactus Records 2014
Review with five stars by DAVID PONSFORD for the American Journal CHOIR AND ORGAN (May 2015):
Apart from the famous Miserere, Allegri’s other works are relatively unknown. Furthermore, the director of this ensemble of strings, cornetts, sackbuts, voices, lutes and organ, has edited and prepared no fewer than ten ‘new’ pieces that were included in the collection belonging to Duke Altemps, rediscovered in 1992 and recorded for the first time. Besides Allegri, composers include Bonomi and Anerio, all of whose canzonas and motets are excellently played and sung. Of special interest is Allegri’s Missa ‘In lectulo meo’for eight voices, based on Bonomi’s motet of the same name, and Lamentationes Jeremiae prophetae for four voices.
Review by JOHAN VAN VEEN for MUSICA DEI DONUM (February 2015):
...There can be no doubt that this is a most interesting disc which should contribute to the creation of a more differentiated picture of Allegri as a composer. In his moving back and forth between the "stile antico" and the "stile moderno" he was a precursor of many Roman composers of later generations who had to obey the ecclesiastical preference for the style of which Palestrina was the ultimate model. Even Alessandro Scarlatti composed some of his sacred music in this style. The Musica Flexanima Ensemble delivers fine performances. The singers have nice voices and create an optimum transparency. Bigotti rightly decided not to perform these works in the style of the 16th century, for instance in regard to dynamics. The instrumental pieces also receive good performances.