Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance - CSMBR

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Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance - CSMBR

This is the official page of the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance

The core mission of the CSMBR is to further the values of humanism and the advancement of scientific knowledge as inspired by the intellectual, cultural, and social development of the European Medical Renaissance (1300–1700).

01/09/2026

Reminder
𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐑𝐔𝐏𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐀'𝐒 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄
𝐎𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬
Lawrence M. Principe
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To register for this lecture: https://form.jotform.com/262003398456358
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fans

31/08/2026

Frontispiece Series 16:
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𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐝𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐬 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐦, 𝟏𝟒𝟗𝟏
Frontispiece with Arnaldus de Villa Nova and Avicenna (Vicenza: Leonardus Achates de Basilea and Guilielmus de Papia, 27 October 1491), Shelfmark: Rare Books Collection, Ballard 368, Boston Medical Library, Boston.
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Based on the first Latin edition, published in Mainz in 1484, the Vicenza edition (1491) marks the first printing of this popular herbal in Italy. Wrongly attributed to Arnaldus de Villa Nova (c. 1240–1311) by the Venetian printer, the herbarium collects opinions of authors and medicinal plants that were common during the late Middle Ages, including Galen, Hippocrates, Pseudo-Apuleius, Mesue, and Avicenna.

The plates differ substantially from those of the earlier German editions. According to Agnes Arber (Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470–1670, pp. 192–193), the drawings in the 1491 herbarium are "more ambitious than those in the original German [editions], and, on the whole, they are more naturalistic. A delightful example, almost Japanese in style, shows an iris at the edge of a stream, from which a graceful bird is drinking. In another picture the fern called 'capillus veneris', which is perhaps intended for the maidenhair, is represented hanging from rocks over water".

After the Italian edition, all subsequent editions retained the misattribution to Arnaldus de Villa Nova.
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28/08/2026

Medical Allegories series 31:
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𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐇𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚, 𝟏𝟖𝟑𝟖
Coloured lithograph by Edward William John Hopley, known as Pillbox, from "The Chirurgico Comico Alphabet" (London: Henry Renshaw, 1838), pages unnumbered [p. 21], Shelfmark: Closed stores EPB/B/29388/1, Wellcome Library, London.
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We seldom publish works from the early nineteenth century, given the premodern remit of the Centre, but this one deserved an exception. This caricature offers a vivid rendering of the "facies Hippocratica" ('Hippocratic aspect') and a striking testimony to the long projection of ancient medical ideas into modernity.

The "facies Hippocratica", still known in medicine today, was first described in the Hippocratic corpus as the characteristic appearance of a patient approaching death. It is usually associated with sunken eyes, a pinched nose, hollow temples, and altered complexion, although the original Hippocratic description is considerably more detailed and accompanies these visible signs with the impairment of bodily functions, including changes in urination and vomiting.

This representation by the English painter Edward William John Hopley (1816–1869) is particularly striking for its satirical tone. Death is imagined as a guillotine about to fall, while the "facies Hippocratica" becomes quite literally the face of the unfortunate condemned man.

Hopley, who adopted the comic pseudonym ‘Pillbox’, produced the image for "The Chirurgico Comico Alphabet" (1838), a satirical booklet lampooning the medical establishment of the early Victorian era through fifty caricatures of medical professionals, practices, and terminology. The joke could also become self-referential: Zygomaticus, named after the facial muscle involved in smiling, shows a group of men laughing uproariously while reading the booklet itself.
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27/08/2026

Call for Papers
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𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐢𝐬 𝐎𝐍
𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: 𝐖𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐖𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐖𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠
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The journal ARTis ON invites the submission of articles for a thematic issue dedicated to the interaction between Art and Science, understood in a broad, historical, and contemporary sense. Far from conceiving these domains as autonomous or opposed spheres, this issue seeks to explore the multiple ways in which artistic and scientific practices have intersected, entered into dialogue, and, in many instances, mutually constituted one another.
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The theme statement welcomes diverse approaches, including, but not limited to:

• Historical relations between art and science (Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Modernity, and the Contemporary period);
• Art as experimental practice, visual laboratory, or form of research;
• Pictorial science, optics, geometry, perspective, anatomy, and cosmography;
• Scientific visuality and the production of images of knowledge;
• Artist-scientists, scientist-artists, and figures of intellectual mediation;
• Knowledge transfer, circulation of ideas, and trading zones between disciplines;
• Epistemology of the image, regimes of visibility, and visual culture;
• Art, technology, science, and critical thought in the contemporary world;
• Interdisciplinary methodologies and hybrid practices between artistic and scientific research.
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Types of submission:

• Scholarly articles between 6,000 and 9,000 words;
• Critical and theoretical-historiographical essays;
• Methodological reflection texts;
• Contributions to the Varia section, including critical reviews and shorter texts, provided they align with the spirit of the issue.
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Languages: Portuguese, English, French, or Spanish.

Submitted texts must include: an abstract; keywords; complete bibliographical references; anonymisation for the purposes of peer review.
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𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨 𝐚𝐭: [email protected] (Prof. Vasco Nuno Figueiredo De Medeiros)
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26/08/2026

Hidden Treasures series 44:
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𝐀 '𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥' 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝟏𝟓𝟗𝟕-𝟏𝟔𝟎𝟔
from Album Amicorum by Andreas Matt (Math ou Madt) de Poznań, MS Smith-Lesouëf 84, f. 41r (with flap), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
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Because of its biological, social, and moral consequences, s*x and s*xuality have been subject to considerable restrictions throughout history. For the same reason, contact between the s*xes was often limited until marriage, through forms of gender segregation that applied especially to women. Anyone able to circumvent such restrictions could be regarded as cunning and, in some contexts, even admired for it, particularly among young male students. Physicians and barber-surgeons were among the relatively few men who could gain legitimate access to the female body under socially acceptable circumstances.

This tension between professional access and s*xual opportunity lies behind the joke in this late sixteenth-century album illustration. The image belongs to the Stammbuch of Andreas Matt and has been described as one of two ‘humorous and erotic depictions' in the album (see by Julia Freisinger, "Freundschafts‑und Bildnetzwerke zwischen Danzig, Breslau und Posen im Spiegel ausgewählter Stammbücher um 1600"), in which the viewer must physically lift a paper flap to reveal the frivolous content concealed beneath. Under the apparent and respectable practice of bloodletting, the drawing hints at the possibility that medical practitioners might exploit the privileged access granted by their profession. While two practitioners attend to the woman’s arm and collect her blood, lifting the flap reveals a young apprentice kneeling between her legs and inspecting or treating her ge***al parts with an instrument, perhaps a speculum or cautery.

The inscriptions surrounding the scene are filled with double meanings. The barber-surgeon on the right boasts: ‘I always carry [my instrument] with me; with it I have already opened many a vein.’ The verses below are even more explicit:

‘Being virtuous does no harm, but being too virtuous is no good either. […] If it were wrong, God would not have created it; if it were a sin, the priests would not do it; if it were wicked, the doctor would not practise it; and if young maidens did not like it, they would surely have it stopped.’

In short, the s*xual humour of students around 1600 was perhaps not so different from that of modern teenagers after all…
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25/08/2026

REMINDER
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𝐕𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧
𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐅𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐍
Domus Comeliana 17-18 November 2026
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Abstract Submission: 𝟏𝟎 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
Info at: https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/.../deafness-premodern.../
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This VivaMente Conference explores deafness and the figure of the deaf person in the Mediterranean Antiquity and pre-modern ages through historical, medical, and socio-cultural perspectives.
Scholars working on any area relevant to the conference are invited to submit a proposal consisting of a title and an abstract. Proposals should not exceed 250 words and should be accompanied by a short biographical note. Contributions may address any aspect relevant to the conference’s theme (ancient, medieval, and early modern), as well as broader comparative or methodological approaches.
The organisers will select the proposals with a view to both the conference programme and the publication of the proceedings. Selected speakers will be invited to complete the registration process after acceptance. The conference proceedings will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication in the series 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞.
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𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐥 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭
Bursaries to attend the conference are available under the competitive Comel Grant scheme: https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/grants-and.../comel-grant/
Application Deadline: 𝟑𝟎 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
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fans

24/08/2026

History of Anatomy and Surgery 38:
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𝐕𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐬, 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝟏𝟕𝟓𝟑
from Jan Palfijn, "Anatomie chirurgicale, ou description exacte des parties du corps humain" (Paris : Chez la V***e Cavelier & Fils), Vol. 1, Plate XLVI.
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Are the main structures of the human body akin to plants or to machines?

The issue seemed settled to Descartes, but anatomists continued to wonder well into the eighteenth century. This plate from the Flemish surgeon Jan Palfijn shows why fibres, ligaments, veins and cartilages could invite comparison with both mechanical and vegetal systems.

On the one hand, fibres display mechanical properties: their elasticity contributes to muscular action and bodily movement. In this respect, they could be compared to ropes and subjected to geometrical and mechanical analysis. On the other hand, the human body is remarkably adaptable. Veins, fibres and ligaments spread and branch rather than simply extend, and when they are damaged the organism can put in place processes of repair and compensation.

So which is it?

Today we know that biological organisation cannot simply be reduced to chemistry or mechanics. These disciplines can explain many biological processes, but neither by itself exhausts the organisation of living things. The age of mechanical philosophy posed the problem rather differently: if nature was to be rendered intelligible through matter and motion, how could the distinctive organisation and adaptability of living bodies be explained?

Jan Palfijn (1650–1730) was among the anatomists confronting this problem. A Flemish surgeon and obstetrician who eventually settled in Ghent, he is perhaps best remembered for his obstetrical forceps, but his influential "Anatomie du corps humain", first published in 1718, belonged to a much broader attempt to understand the structures of the living body. In sum, Palfijn's plates visually condensed the terms of the discussion and why it mattered beyond medicine.
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21/08/2026

Hospital and Household Medicine 24:
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐜𝐤, 𝟏𝟔𝟒𝟎
Oil painting (99 x 152cm) by Cornelis de Wael, Musei di Strada Nova, Palazzo Tursi, Genoa.
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The scene represented in the painting concerns the custom whereby Genoese nobles and diplomats visited the hospital every Holy Monday for the "perdon grande", a ceremony through which a plenary indulgence could be obtained. The religious occasion also provided an opportunity for members of the elite to reaffirm their prominent social role through almsgiving and their physical presence within the institution.

It is therefore no coincidence that the patron of the painting, Pier Francesco Grimaldi, appears prominently in the foreground, seated between the chancellor and the rector of the Hospital and wearing an elegant black costume distinguished by a broad white lace collar.

The scene is set in the entrance hall of the Pammatone Hospital in Genoa (active between 1423 and 1923, now incorporated into the present-day Palace of Justice), one of the city’s foremost charitable and healthcare institutions. The hospital was supported by donations from members of the Genoese aristocracy, whose likenesses are commemorated in the imposing statues placed within niches.

Cornelis De Wael (1592-1667), together with his brother Lucas, settled in Genoa in 1619, renting premises that soon became, according to a tradition already well established in Flanders, a combined house and workshop, where Flemish painters arriving in the city could find accommodation and everything they needed to begin working in relative comfort.

The workshop also organised work according to commissions and the particular abilities of the various painters, diversifying its genres so as to meet the wide range of demands made by Genoese patrons: battles and marine scenes, still lifes of flowers, fruit and animals, and genre scenes were among the subjects most frequently produced and most successful.
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20/08/2026

𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩
Koper-Capodistria
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Deadline: 𝟏𝟓 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
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A joint initiative of the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR) and the Science and Research Centre (ZRS) – Koper, this scheme supports mid-career and senior scholars with a fully funded one-month residency in Koper-Capodistria, Santorio Santori’s birthplace, to conduct archival research or organise a scientific event.
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Application: https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/grants-and-awards/santorio-residential-fellowship/
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19/08/2026

Human Generation Series 15:
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𝐂𝐚𝐞𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝟏𝟑𝟎𝟕
from Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, "Chronology of Ancient Nations" (الآثار الباقية عن القرون الخالية), MS Or. 161, f. 16r, Edinburgh University Library, Edinburgh.
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The scene represents a post-mortem Caesarean birth, specifically that of the Emperor Augustus. According to the account transmitted by the polymath Abū Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (973–1048), Augustus was delivered by abdominal incision after his mother died in labour.

Caesarean or post-mortem abdominal delivery was known in antiquity: Roman legal tradition (especially parts of Justinian's "Digest") prohibited the burial of a pregnant woman before the foetus had been extracted, although the evidence for the actual performance of the procedure remains considerably less secure than the legal and literary traditions surrounding it.

Its history in medieval Islamic medicine is more difficult to establish.

The Andalusian physician and surgeon Abū al-Qāsim al-Zahrāwī (c. 936–1013), a contemporary of al-Biruni, wrote the "Kitāb al-Taṣrīf" which, composed around the turn of the eleventh century, represents the most extensive surviving account of surgical practice from the medieval Islamic world.

However, al-Zahrāwī does not describe Caesarean section among his surgical procedures, and direct medical evidence for the actual performance of the operation remains scarce. Al-Bīrūnī's account nevertheless demonstrates that post-mortem abdominal delivery was known in the Islamic world at precisely the period in which al-Zahrāwī was systematising contemporary surgical knowledge. Significantly, al-Bīrūnī does not restrict the phenomenon to the legendary birth of Augustus: he also reports that Aḥmad ibn Sahl claimed to have been delivered in the same manner.

The illumination forms part of al-Bīrūnī's "Kitāb al-āthār al-bāqiya ʿan al-qurūn al-khāliya" ("The Chronology of Ancient Nations"), composed around AD 1000 and devoted to the comparative study of calendars, chronological systems, religious festivals and historical traditions among different peoples. Its treatment extends from Arabic, Persian and Jewish traditions to Greek, Roman and Byzantine chronology. The surviving illustrated manuscript, Edinburgh University Library, Or. MS 161, was produced some three centuries later, in 1307–08.
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