VivaMente: The Garden of Ideas

We are pleased to announce that applications for the 2025 VivaMente Grant are now open. This prestigious grant offers €5,000 in funding, along with complimentary use of the Domus Comeliana, to support exceptional proposals for up to a two-day event.

VivaMente promotes and sustains the best ideas in intellectual history and the history of ideas with adequate economic and logistic support. Applicants are not required to be CSMBR members. For more details and application guidelines, please visit the VivaMente Grant page or check the grant section below.

On the Risks and Benefits of Ice-Cold Drinks

Global Environments and the Local Stakes of an Early Modern

Medical Debate 

Anna Speyart

Webinar: 5 December 2024 - 5 Pm (CET) 

In this lecture, Anna Speyart examines the medical and cultural debates surrounding the consumption of ice-cold drinks in the early modern period, exploring their implications for health and highlighting contrasting perspectives on diet, digestion, and bodily balance.

Demons, Imagination, and Mental Illness

Medical Disputations on Phantasia in Wittenberg (1593-1643)

Manuel Huth

Webinar: 17 December 2024 - 5 pm (CET) 

The role of phantasia was a recurring topic of discussion at the medical faculty in Wittenberg, with contributions from Philipp Melanchthon, Johann Weyer, and Daniel Sennert among the highlights of the debate. This lecture will trace the development of the phantasia discourse and illustrate how its reception could lead to a rationalization of seemingly supernatural mental states.

Popular Diseases and Thaumaturgic Specialisations

Reading Marian Legends as a Medical Source (18th century)

Marco Papasidero

Webinar: 16 January 2025 - 5 pm (CET) 

This lecture aims to examine how illness is represented in a collection of legends surrounding the foundation of Italian Marian sanctuaries, written in the early 18th century and drawing on earlier sources. It will also touch on magical and folkloric practices observed at these sanctuaries and their connections to concepts of illness and healing, enriching the discussion of the interplay between religion, medicine, and popular belief.

VivaMente Grant

Under this scheme € 5,000 plus the free usage of the Domus Comeliana will be awarded to the best proposals for a max. 2-day event to be held in Pisa. 

Introducing the 2025 CSMBR Welcoming Guide

Your Companion to Exploring Our Community in Pisa

We are thrilled to present the new CSMBR Welcoming Guide, your essential companion to everything the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance is and has to offer.

From insights into our mission and events to exclusive member perks and practical tips for your stay in Pisa, this guide is designed to help you make the most of your CSMBR experience. Click below to download your copy and join us in fostering a vibrant community of scholarship and collaboration.

In this 'Santorio Lecture', Dr Tamar Nadav (Tel Aviv University), offers an insightful new glimpse into the twelfth-century notion of embodiment, its scientific foundations, and its medical motivations. The Lecture was recorded as part of the "VivaMente Conference in the History of Ideas" held in Pisa 24-25 October 2024.

Watch Marco Vespa as he explores the modalities of anatomical examination of the animal body and the relationships between medical observation and knowledge from cultural domains that are not strictly medical, such as sacrificial practises or ancient traditions of veterinary and husbandry.

In this lecture, Cecilia Martini Bonadeo explores al-Fārābī’s physiological views which presents the human body as a microcosm of the cosmos. Throughout his works, al-Fārābī connects medicine, physics, and political order, using the body’s structure as a model for an ideal society.

By exploring and commenting upon some Galenic loci in "Gargantua and Pantagruel" (1532-1564) by Rabelais, one of the most brilliant doctors operating during the Renaissance, Guido Giglioni shows how notions such as such food, growth, digestion, and natural faculty were an integral part of Rabelais’s neo-Galenic project.

In this engaging interview, captured at the end of the "Healing Powers Conference", Prof. Lawrence M. Principe shares his reflections on the unique 'chemistry' of ideas at the CSMBR, where vibrant exchanges bring research to life. Enjoy!

In a friendly exchange on the terrace of the Domvs Comeliana, Daniel King and Nephele Papakonstantinou share their reflections on VivaMente 2024, discussing the event’s highlights, the impact of the grant, and their views on the centre's work

Filmed on the terrace of the Domvs Comeliana, Prof. Thomas Baier shares his thoughts on the enriching VivaMente 2024 conference and the inspiring CSMBR intellectual setting.

Tommaso Ghezzani

available for pre-order

20% off with membership

Matteo Pace

20% off with membership

Vivian Nutton

20% off with membership

Nicola Polloni and

Sylvain Roudaut

20% off with membership

Based on Aristotelian principles, Pomponazzi’s analysis of sense perception and the reliability of the senses in acquiring knowledge was pivotal to shaping Renaissance views on psychology and epistemology.

In this article Giovanna Zipoli explores the medicinal and culinary uses of melon seeds and milk during the Renaissance, detailing recipes and health benefits documented by physicians and agronomists of the era.

 © Arbor: Knowledge That Grows

CSMBR Newsletter

Cover image

Apothecary Shop, 1612

Codex  V1895, f. 242v

 Pharmazie-Historisches Museum

University of Basel, Basel

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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