New Strategic Collaborations

We are delighted to announce the signing of a new partnership between the Centro per la Storia dell'Università di Padova (CSUP) and the CSMBR. This collaboration will unlock the vast historical and cultural wealth of one of Europe's most venerable institutions of higher learning. We look forward to the innovative research and educational opportunities that this collaboration will foster, starting with a conference in memory of Prof. Giuseppe Ongaro (1936-2023) to be held in Padua this autumn. Read more under Upcoming Conferences.

Ordinary Fellow

University of Cambridge

Santorio Award 

The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas

Santorio Award

University of Exeter

Childbearing in the Early Modern Period

Breastfeeding Remedies in the Kingdom of Majorca (1470-1778)

Pablo José Alcover Cateura

Webinar: 19 March 2024 - 5 Pm (CET) 

This lecture explores the use of the “confit d’en cases” or “confectio infantium”, a remedy for breastfed infants with colic, meteorism, and aerophagia. The main source will be post-mortem inventories from Majorcan apothecaries which shed a unique light on childbearing in the early modern period.

'A Dead Eye is not Really an Eye'

Analysis and Synthesis in Sixteenth-Century Anatomy

Tawrin Baker

Webinar: 9 April 2024 - 5 Pm (CEST) 

The term anatomy in the early modern period was multifaceted, and at times it was  understood via the Greek terms analysis and synthesis or their Latin equivalents, namely resolutio and compositio. This talk examines several late sixteenth-century anatomical works that adopted either the terms and or methods of analysis and synthesis, especially those of  Varolio, Du Laurens, Acquapendente, and Casserio. 

Medicine and the Neapolitan Plague of 1656

New Documents and Perspectives

Silvana D'Alessio

Webinar: 14 May 2024 - 5 Pm (CEST) 

This lecture explores a variety of little know sources on the Neapolitian plague of 1656, offering new documents and perspectives on how ideas about the nature and possible remedies for the pandemic changed over time.

A One-Day Conference in Memory of Giuseppe Ongaro (1936-2023)

27 September 2024 - 9.30 am (CEST)

University of Padua, Sala delle Edicole

This event honours the medical historian Giuseppe Ongaro (1936-2023) with a one-day conference dedicated to exploring his multifaceted legacy in the history of medicine. Co-organised with the Centro per la Storia dell’Università di Padova and the Studio Firmano, with sponsorship from the Accademia Galileiana, it will host a series of established and early career scholars alongside PhD students. 

Food, Plants, Remedies, and Healing Practices

Organised by Jil Muller & Fabrizio Bigotti

8 May - 10 July 2024 - 4.30 am (CEST)

Organised in collaboration with the Centre for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists – University of Paderborn, this series seeks to understand the role of women in the history of medicine by exploring their contributions in fields such as natural philosophy, household remedies, plant manipulation and selection, as well as midwifery.

Interpretative and Scientific Knowledge in Medical and Medico-Legal Case Histories from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period

24-25 October 2024 

This VivaMente conference explores the intersections of narrative, rhetorical persuasion, and factual evidence in medical and medico-legal case histories from Antiquity to the Renaissance focusing on the longue durée development of medical and medico-legal consilia.  It will allow participants to analyse both the historical development of medical and medico-legal consilia and the complex relationships between medicine, rhetoric, and law at key historical moments.

In this paper Razieh S. Mousavi explores al-Farghānī’s "Elements of Astronomy", a pioneering work in theoretical astronomy written in Arabic during a period of increased availability of translated scientific texts

Norbert Fischer's talk unveils a cutting-edge system for automatically transcribing historical texts, showcased through the "Camerarius Digital" project. 

Google engineer Francesco Cicala provides an introduction to the fundamental mechanics of deep learning, covering key technical concepts that drive its transformative impact.

Amalia Cerrito

Santorio Award 2022

Simone Guidi &

Joaquim Braga

Between medieval alchemy and Franciscan spiritualism, this article unearths the intersection of science and religion in pursuit of the Elixir

This article calls attention to the abrading act, showing how, in the early modern period, the the artisanal and the geological shaped new visions of earth science.

 © Arbor: Knowledge That Grows

CSMBR Newsletter

Cover image: 

'Chico Capotl' (Manilkara Zapota)

Herbal by Pier Antonio Michiel,

Libro Azzurro, ca. 1550-1570

MS It II 30 (= 4864), f. 45r 

Biblioteca Nationale Marciana, Venice

Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR)
Domvs Comeliana, Via Pietro Maffi 48

56126  Pisa, Italy

info@csmbr.fondazionecomel.org

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