The Medical Renaissance of the Sixteenth Century

This book examines the relationship of medicine to those intellectual and social changes which historians call the Renaissance. The contributors describe how the whole range of medicine, from practical therapeutics to surgery, anatomy and pharmacy, was developing. Some important questions about the nature of medicine as it was taught and practised are raised. These include the continuing vigour of Arabic and scholastic medicine, how this was reconciled with the renaissance love of all things Greek and the nature of medicine in different parts of Europe. The chapters are written by acknowledged experts in their subjects and are based on contributions read at a meeting called for the purpose in Cambridge and supported by the Wellcome Trust.

Introduction; 1. Aristotle among the physicians C. B. Schmitt; 2. The changing fortunes of a traditional text: goals and strategies in sixteenth-century Latin editions of the Canon of Avicenna N. G. Siraisi; 3. Berengario da Carpi and the use of commentary in anatomical teaching R. K. French; 4. Humanist surgery V. Nutoon; 5. Pharmacy in the republic of Venice in the sixteenth century R. Palmer; 6. Explorations in renaissance writings on the practice of medicine A. Wear; 7. Jacques Dubois as a practitioner G. Baader; 8. The 'Paris Hippocratics': teaching and research in Paris in the second half of the sixteenth century I. M. Lonie; 9. The generation of disease: occult causes and diseases of the total substance L. Deer Richardson; 10. Fabricius and the 'Aristotle project' in anatomical teaching and research at Padua A. Cunningham; 11. Disputation and description in the renaissance pulse controversy J. J. Bylebyl; 12. Academicism versus empiricism in practical medicine in sixteenth-century Spain with regard to morisco practitioners L. Garcia-Ballester; Notes; Index.

This book examines the relationship of medicine to those intellectual and social changes which historians call the Renaissance. The contributors describe how the whole range of medicine, from practical therapeutics to surgery, anatomy and pharmacy, was developing.