Matter Prepared, Form Received
Why do medicines work? This lecture revisits fourteenth-century Italy, where physicians such as Taddeo Alderotti and Dino del Garbo sought
Naming Cancer (13th-14th Centuries)
The article follows cancer and lupus as unstable names in medieval medicine, constantly displaced by what physicians did, what texts
From the Laboratory to the Bedside
Franciscus Sylvius and his pupil Reinier de Graaf transformed iatrochemistry from a speculative medical theory into a clinically grounded and
Medieval Uroscopy and the Brain
Medieval physicians interpreted the brain through uroscopy, tracing a diagnostic reasoning that linked urine, humoral imbalance, and cerebral function. This
Editing and Translating Philoponus
Focusing on Philoponus's commentary on Aristotle’s "Physics", this lecture will examine the recovery of the Greek text and its later
The Brain in the Islamicate Tradition
Sharhzad Irannejed examines medieval Islamicate diagrams of the brain and its ventricles as variable scribal artefacts, arguing that their visual
Renaissance Debates on Occult Qualities
What are occult qualities, and why did they become a central problem in Renaissance natural philosophy and medicine? This lecture
The Ancient History of Sympathy
in this talk, Brooke Holmes presents the history of the ancient concept of "sympatheia", from the emergence of the language
Infectious Disease Histories
In this lecture, Monica Green explores how pathogen palaeogenetics, through ancient microbial genomes, is transforming our understanding of the evolution
Medical Electricity Arrives in Italy
“Dell’Elettricismo” (1746) was the first Italian treatise to systematically connect electricity with physiology and medical practice. By analysing its experiments