New Strategic Collaborations

We are very pleased to announce another important international cooperation with the ZRS, the Science and Research Centre of Koper - Slovenia. Founded on 1st December 1994, ZRS Koper has a rich history of research excellence. From 2003 to 2015, it was the main research hub of the University of Primorska.

Reestablished as a public research institute in 2016, ZRS Koper has a centre on Venetian history, which aligns closely with our research goals and interests. Its research activities are grounded in interdisciplinary work, involving humanities, social and natural sciences, with a focus on the environments of the Mediterranean, the upper Adriatic region and central Europe.

We look forward to exploring new ways of fostering research in medical humanities, arts, and sciences.

Cesalpino and Aristotelian Science

The Transformation of Medical Botany in the 16th Century

Quentin Hiernaux and Corentin Tresnie

Webinar: 11 June 2024 - 5 Pm (CET) 

This talk explores Cesalpino's "De Plantis", which laid the foundations of scientific systematics and became a milestone in the history of botany. the work is a precious testimony to the evolution of botanical and physiological knowledge in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and illustrates the role of Aristotelian philosophy in 16th-century science.

Food, Famine, and Social Class

Galen on Nutrition and Diet in the Roman Empire

John Wilkins

Webinar: 27 June 2024 - 5 Pm (CEST) 

Galen is one of the best sources on ancient nutrition and diet: he has little interest in luxury fashions, he records regular seasonal famines, and is at home in the fields talking to peasants as much as he is in the salons of his wealthy clients. This lecture considers some key factors at play in Galen's consideration of diet and social class in his De alimentorum facultatibus.

Drinking Plain Water in the Early Modern Period

Disease Prevention and Therapeutics

David Gentilcore

Webinar: 2 July 2024 - 5 Pm (CEST) 

The early modern period witnessed a complete shift in medical attitudes towards drinking water. In this two-part paper,David Gentilcore proposes to compare knowledge around the consumption of common water with medical practice and the changes both underwent.

Emulating God on Earth

Leibniz on the Organisation of Life and the Structure of Ideal Societies

Audry Borowski

Webinar: 16 July 2024 - 5 pm (CEST) 

Leibniz’s philosophy was not a purely contemplative but driven by the dictum of theoria cum praxi, namely the idea of deriving practical applications from theoretical insights and scientific discoveries. According to him, the temporal realm should strive to emulate the perfection of the metaphysical realm and man, his creator.

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 and Fabrizio Bigotti

8 May - 10 July 2024 - 4.30 pm (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.

The term “anatomy” in the early modern period was multifaceted, and at times it was explicitly understood via the Greek terms "analysis" and "synthesis" or their Latin equivalents, namely "resolutio" and "compositio".

This lecture examines the use, preparation and dissemination of 'confit d'en cases' or 'confectio infantium', a remedy for breastfed infants suffering from colic, meteorism and aerophagia, used in the Kingdom of Mallorca (1470-1788). 

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

Nicola Polloni and Sylvain Roudaut

Forthcoming

Simone Guidi &

Joaquim Braga

The nature and proper application of opium has long been debated amongst Galenists and Paracelsians. Angelo Sala distinguished himself as the first scholar to devote an entire treatise to opium and the treatment of pain.

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: 

'The Creation of Planets', 1545

Francisco de Holanda, "De Aetatibus Mundi Imagines"

MS DIB/14/26, f. 6r,

Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid.

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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