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

16/10/2026

𝐂𝐒𝐌𝐁𝐑—𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩
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Value: 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 € 𝟐.𝟒𝟎𝟎
Duration: 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝟔 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬
Eligibility: [𝐁𝐀], 𝐌𝐀, 𝐏𝐡𝐃
Deadline: 𝟑𝟎 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
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𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐍𝐨𝐰: https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/grants-and-awards/csmbr-brepols-residential-fellowship/
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To be eligible, applicants must have a university-level command of Latin. They must be willing to take up the entire fellowship—or at least the longer (and initial) part of it—in situ at the Brepols offices. Applicants must also hold a current affiliation with a university or research institution, providing a suitable framework for undertaking the fellowship.

The application consists of a short CV (max. 2 pages), a motivation letter (1 page), plus the name and contact details of one academic referee. Additional info is available on the application page.
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fans Brepols

15/10/2026

FORMA FLUENS: Histories of the Microcosm
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𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐒, 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬' «𝐀𝐢𝐫𝐬, 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬»
Gabriele Torcoletti
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Could the character of a people be explained by the place they inhabited? In his latest article for the CSMBR blog, Gabriele Torcoletti explores this question through a detailed study of the Hippocratic treatise "Airs, Waters, Places", examining how its author connected environmental conditions with differences between human populations.

Through a close reading of the treatise, Torcoletti reconstructs an intellectual architecture in which 'analogy' and 'polarity' provide a means of interpreting human diversity. His analysis moves beyond the familiar claim that ancient medicine understood bodies as products of their surroundings, asking how the text established correspondences between places and peoples and organised them into a coherent explanation. The result offers a compelling invitation to reconsider how an influential medical work made human differences intelligible, and how much depended on the conceptual patterns through which those differences were observed.
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𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰:
https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/blog/forma-fluens/like-places-like-peoples/
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A special invite to our fans, Brepols Studio Firmano

14/10/2026

Jewish Medicine 2:
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𝐀 𝐉𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫, 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞, 𝟏𝟔𝟓𝟓
from the Yiddish book of remedies "Seyfer Be’er Mayim Khayim", Shelf Mark: Schwad 02 09 41, Abraham Schwadron Collection of Portraits, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem.
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Portraits of early modern Jewish barber-surgeons are exceptionally rare. This woodcut depicts Issachar Bär Teller at the age of 43 and appears in his Yiddish book of remedies, “Seyfer Be’er Mayim Khayim” (Prague: Bak Press, 1655).

The inscriptions beside his head identify his age, his name Bär and his profession, rofeh (medical practitioner). By placing his portrait before the main text, Teller may have sought to promote his professional standing and establish readers’ confidence in the remedies he offered.

Yiddish, the vernacular language of Ashkenazi Jews, is written in Hebrew characters and combines a largely German linguistic base with Hebrew and Aramaic elements. Its use in medical books made practical advice accessible to readers beyond the learned circles in which medicine was commonly discussed in Hebrew or Latin.

Teller’s book belongs to an early tradition of printed Yiddish health manuals intended for households, including readers who could not afford medical consultations or lived far from a practitioner.
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Special thanks to Dr @ Daniella Zaidman Mauer for sharing the image and identifying information.
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13/10/2026

Reminder:
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CSMBR ONLINE LECTURE SERIES
https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/events/online-lectures/epistemic-revolution/
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fans

What if the Scientific Revolution was not the birth of modern science, but a shorter and deeper transformation in how Europeans investigated nature? Paolo Bartoloni Meli reconsiders the Scientific Revolution as an epistemic transformation that reshaped scientific enquiry in seventeenth-century Europ...

13/10/2026

Medical Lexicon Series 29:
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𝐏𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚
Related terms: "Morbus pestilens/pestilentialis"
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In humoral pathology, a severe, contagious epidemic disease believed to cause putrefaction of the humours and particularly to affect the heart, innate heat, and vital spirits. It was attributed to corrupted air, or miasma, sometimes resulting from changes in the configurations of stars and planets.
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Source: Bartolomeo Castelli, "Lexicon Medicum Graeco-Latinum" (Messina, 1598): 318-319.
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12/10/2026

Medical Icons Series 17:
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𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭, 𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐚, 𝟏𝟕𝟖𝟎
Fresco by Anton Lerchinger for the old pharmacy of the Olimje Monastery, Slovenia.
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In the Hebrew Bible, King Solomon has many attributes, among which wisdom is probably the most widely praised. His wisdom was also understood to encompass knowledge of medicinal plants.

In the Latin translation of the Old Testament, known as the Vulgate, 1 Kings 4:33 (numbered as 3 Kings 4:33 in the cartouche beneath the fresco) reads: "Et disputavit super lignis, a cedro quae est in Libano, usque ad hyssopum quae egreditur de pariete" ("And he spoke of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall").

The passage describes knowledge of plants rather than explicitly of their medicinal uses, but it provided a basis for interpreting Solomon’s wisdom in medical terms.

At Olimje, Solomon appears alongside Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna in the frescoes of the Old Pharmacy, bringing biblical authority into the company of learned medicine.

The pharmacy was established by the Pauline monks, who arrived in 1663, cultivated and collected medicinal herbs, and prepared remedies. Situated on the ground floor of the monastery’s south tower, its vaulted circular room was decorated with frescoes by Anton Lerchinger. This monastic apothecary combined medicinal practice with trust in divine assistance: its prior, or "Eggerer", maintained in his Heavenly Pharmacy that faith and confidence in God’s help surpassed the efficacy of the remedies of Dioscorides and Galen.

Solomon’s presence on the ceiling surely provided much inspiration....
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A special thanks to Dr Tilen Glavina for providing the image.
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09/10/2026

CSMBR ONLINE LECTURE SERIES
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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐂 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍, 𝐜𝐚. 𝟏𝟔𝟏𝟎-𝟏𝟔𝟖𝟎𝐬
𝐀 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞
Domenico Bertoloni Meli
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𝟐𝟏 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 - 𝟓 𝐩𝐦 𝐂𝐄𝐓
To register: https://eu.jotform.com/262643179156362
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The notion of the “Scientific Revolution” is generally understood as the time from Galileo — or at times Copernicus — to Newton that saw the beginning of “modern science”.

This notion has been hotly debated: there is disagreement as to how best to characterize it, when it occurred, and even whether there was a Scientific Revolution. Several historians have recently argued that it should be jettisoned or proposed alternative characterizations.

This talk proposes a new notion with which historians may feel more comfortable: the Epistemic Revolution. The Epistemic Revolution is defined not in relation to modern science, which differs widely from that of the mid-20th century and is changing in front of our eyes, but “locally”, in terms of what preceded and followed it. Two defining characters of the Epistemic Revolution are those of mechanism and new instruments, such as the telescope, the microscope, the barometer, the thermometer, and the air pump.

Lastly, the timeframe, from c. 1610 to the 1680s, is shorter than usual and excludes Newton’s mature work, such as Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (1687), which is not seen as the telos of the Epistemic Revolution but as a key text of the investigations of nature in the Enlightenment.
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fans

08/10/2026

Medical Astrology 20:
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐙𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐜 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 ("𝐙𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐕𝐢𝐭𝐚"), 𝐈𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐲, 𝟏𝟐𝟎𝟕
Marble pavement of San Miniato al Monte, Florence.
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The marble zodiac at San Miniato al Monte, also called the “Zodiaco della Vita”, illustrates how celestial notions from antiquity could acquire Christian meaning. Its twelve signs surround a stylised sun, understood within the basilica’s religious setting as a symbol of divine light. One interpretation associates the twelve signs with the twelve Apostles, placing the annual cycle within the order of Christian salvation.

The same zodiac also belonged to the intellectual world of medicine. In medieval and Renaissance medical astrology, the human body was understood through its correspondences with the heavens. These relationships were represented in the “Zodiac Man”, a figure mapping the signs onto different regions of the body. Such images expressed the belief that celestial movements affected bodily health, making knowledge of the heavens relevant to treatment.

These correspondences had practical consequences. Physicians and other practitioners consulted the Moon’s position to choose favourable times for bloodletting or administering medicines. A common rule warned against treating a bodily region while the Moon occupied the sign believed to govern it. The Zodiac Man therefore worked alongside astronomical tables: the image identified the bodily correspondence, while the tables supplied the celestial timing.

This broader medical tradition helps explain why zodiacal imagery mattered beyond decoration and why it did for the Church. The signs offered a framework for relating life on earth to celestial order established by God, whether in the interpretation of the body or in the symbolism of a church.
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07/10/2026

Final Reminder
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https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/events/online-lectures/the-cold-female-body-in-oliva-sabuco/

Long regarded as an exceptional voice in early modern thought, Oliva Sabuco is revisited by Jil Müller, who reconstructs her original reinterpretation of women's role in generation and nurture.

06/10/2026

𝐕𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔: 𝐏𝐫𝐞-𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞
17-18 November 2026
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The pre-final programme for VivaMente 2026 is finally out!

We are genuinely excited about this one. 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐟𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐧 brings together an unusually rich group of scholars to explore how hearing, deafness, and silent communication were conceptualised and experienced across premodern cultures.

The programme ranges widely in chronology and geography, from Ancient Egypt to Greece, Rome, Islamicate Societies, Byzantium and the Renaissance.

For students, researchers and the simply curious, it offers a rare opportunity to see intellectual history at work across boundaries too often studied separately.
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𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬
In-person: 𝟑𝟎 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
Online: 𝟏𝟓 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
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To register for this event: https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/events/vivamente-conferences/deafness-premodern-mediterranean/
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