Welcoming the Edward Worth Library

Summer time brings another important collaboration to the centre, as the venerable Edward Worth Library (1733) joins the CSMBR parternships worldwide. This partnership marks a significant milestone in our mission to advance the study of medicine, science, and the body during the Renaissance.

Located in the heart of Dublin, the Edward Worth Library hosts an extensive collection of rare books and manuscripts from the 16th to the 18th centuries and provides a treasure trove of primary sources. This new collaboration will facilitate groundbreaking research projects, combining the unique resources of the Worth Library with the expertise of our scholars.

Emulating God on Earth

Leibniz on the Organisation of Life & 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.

Ambroise Paré and his Context

Mapping the Territory of a Renaissance Physician

Elena Berger

Webinar: 10 September 2024 - 5 pm (CEST) 

This lecture examines Ambroise Paré's pioneering contributions to surgery, including treatments for gunshot wounds and post-wound infections. Based on the speaker's book Ambroise Paré: The First Surgeon of the Realm (2023), the lecture highlights Paré's innovations, their practical applications, and their impact on sixteenth-century medicine and technology.

Medicine on the Margins of Colonial Mexico

Galenic Medicine in Home-Made Remedies

Paula De Vos

Webinar: 30 September 2024 - 5 pm (CEST) 

As the Spanish colonial establishment spread beyond the urban environment new modes of itnereactions between the Galenic tradition, the Nahua and other indigenous medical traditions were established. To explore these, this lecture will analyse texts of 'rustic medicine', which contain recipes for homemade remedies that could be prepared in places "where there is no pharmacy". 

Female Seeds, Powers, and Bodies

 Albert the Great and the Vegetal Sexuality

Amalia Cerrito

Webinar: 10 July 2024 - 4.30 pm (CEST) 

In this final lecture of the joint series Women's Ideas in the History of Medicine (CSMBR-Paderborn University), Amalia Cerrito discusses Albert the Great's ideas  on vegetal sexuality. Unlike animals, plants reproduce through seeds without sexual distinction and Albert explores how male and female roles manifest in nature, from humans to plants, defining their essential aspects and causal roles.

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

27 September 2024

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. 

Elixir, Medicinal Waters, Precious Stones and their Use in Medicine and Alchemy (1300-1500)

22-23 October 2024 

This conference explores the historical use of various alchemical processes and remedies within the cultural and intellectual context of pre-modern Europe. It focuses particularly on medical alchemy, whose ultimate goal was to create the elixir, a universal remedy capable of curing all diseases. The conference features a presentation of Catalan databases on alchemy and delves into the many facets of experimentalism in alchemy and medicine.

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.

Open throughout the year, this grant supports exceptional projects in the history of medicine, science, technology, and ideas, including philology. Under this scheme, €1,500 plus the free usage of the Domus Comeliana (worth an additional €2,500 per day) will be awarded to the best proposals for a max-2-day event to be held in Pisa. While not limited to any career stage, the grant is intended as a complement to other funding, either prospective or already secured.

The grant supports young scholars partaking in events organised by the CSMBR, either online or in person.

The scheme offers the opportunity to study at a CSMBR-funded institution for a period of between two and four months. It is currently open only to students from CSMBR-funded institutions.

In this lecture, Prof. John Wilkins explores Galen's treatises on Foods and Juices, and devles into his theory of the ‘similarity’ or ‘appropriateness’ of a food to the human body: the more of these qualities are supplied, the more readily the body will be able to transform them into blood and energy.

Cesalpino's 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.

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".

Nicola Polloni &

Sylvain Roudaut

Available for Pre-Order

Simone Guidi &

Joaquim Braga

This article examines the various debates that were promoted in the Viceroyalty of New Granada (South America) and have survived in the form of dictated professorial notes.

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.

 © Arbor: Knowledge that Grows

CSMBR Newsletter

Cover image: 

'Satyr', ca. 1210

MS Royal 12 C XIX, f. 15v,

The British Library, London

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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