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
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
Health and Illness in Mining Communities
How were miners affected by their work? This article traces the illnesses they faced, the vocabulary they created to describe
Howling Dogs
Paul Sandro Heidelbach explores a 1688 satire that linked Kenelm Digby’s "sympathetic powder" to a supposed method for finding longitude
Reshaping Vesalius’ Legacy
In this article Sabrina Engert examines how Andreas Vesalius’s "De humani corporis fabrica" and "Epitome" were re-edited, adapted, and transformed
Honey in Coptic Medicine
Drawing on Coptic medical writings and related historical sources, this article examines honey’s evolving roles in treatment and ritual from
The Medicine of Merchants
Through an analysis of trade manuals, personal notebooks (zibaldoni), and family records, Massimo Sbarbaro illustrates how merchants were not only
The Language of the Universal Cure
This article traces how seventeenth-century Naples became a crucible for alchemical debate over the elusive language of the universal cure.
Medicine in the Homeric World
From battlefield wounds to divine remedies, this article explores the Iliad's earliest depictions of physicians, surgery, and drugs in ancient
Ole Borch on Indigenous Plants
The article explores Ole Borch's work "De usu plantarum indigenarum in medicina" (1690) and how his emphasis on indigenous plants