PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SOUL: MIND, BODY AND MATTER IN THE GALENIC TRADITION OF THE LATE RENAISSANCE (1550-1630)

PROJETO DE LEITURA

Quanto aos interesses do autor e, talvez, seja esse um dos motivos por me interessar pela obra: 

Lançada recentemente; adiciono aqui, nesta página, para futura leitura, quando, com mais tempo e possibilidades me dedicarei à leitura;  “seus interesses abrangem áreas como a metafísica, história da tecnologia e reconstrução de instrumentos históricos e história da quantificação e matemática aplicada, com ênfase particular na recuperação da filosofia clássica e medieval, literatura e práticas experimentais no início do período moderno.”

“Como médicos e filósofos do final da Renascença foram além dos padrões aceitos no desenvolvimento do legado filosófico de Galeno? Este estudo analisa as maneiras pelas quais médicos e filósofos desenvolveram o legado filosófico de Galen no final do Renascimento e mostra como a leitura de textos médicos clássicos foi além dos padrões e convenções aceitos.

Ao desafiar um relato historiográfico tradicional que descreveu o galenismo renascentista em termos de declínio e queda, este estudo defende uma nova avaliação do legado de Galen, também lida através das lentes daqueles que se opuseram ou reagiram criticamente a ele e, assim, contribuíram para a formação de importantes aspectos do debate moderno inicial sobre antropologia, ética, psicologia e até experimentação quantificada. Entre essas muitas inovações e transformações, a noção de "engenhosidade" (ingenium) merece atenção especial. Escondidos nessa inclinação corpórea, inerente e hereditária, dois temas principais que se inquietam com o desenvolvimento da subjetividade moderna podem ser identificados: a 'corporalidade do corpo' e o destino comum de humanos e animais.

De maneira mais geral, este estudo oferece uma contribuição para o debate em andamento sobre o papel e o valor da história médica, argumentando a favor do conceito de 'tradutibilidade histórica' no equilíbrio da longue durée das tradições com as interações caóticas de pensadores individuais.”

Quanto aos interesses do autor: “Seus interesses abrangem áreas como a metafísica, história da tecnologia e reconstrução de instrumentos históricos e história da quantificação e matemática aplicada, com ênfase particular na recuperação da filosofia clássica e medieval, literatura e práticas experimentais no início do período moderno.”

"How did late-Renaissance physicians and philosophers move beyond accepted patterns in developing Galen's philosophical legacy?

This study looks at the ways in which physicians and philosophers developed Galen's philosophical legacy at the end of the Renaissance, and shows how their reading of classical medical texts moved beyond accepted patterns and conventions.

By challenging a traditional historiographical account that described Renaissance Galenism in terms of decline and fall, this study argues for a new assessment of Galen's legacy, also read through the lens of those who opposed or reacted critically to it and thus contributed to the shaping of important aspects of the early modern debate on anthropology, ethics, psychology and even quantified experimentation. Among these many innovations and transformations, the notion of 'ingenuity' (ingenium) deserves particular attention. Hidden within this corporeal, inherent and heritable inclination, two major themes that side disquietingly with the development of modern subjectivity can be identified: the 'corporeality of the body', and the common destiny of humans and animals.

More generally, this study offers a contribution to the ongoing debate on the role and value of medical history, arguing in favour of the concept of 'historical translatability' in balancing the longue durée of traditions with the chaotic interactions of individual thinkers."

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Fabrizio Bigotti is Senior Research Fellow at the Institut für Geschichte der Medizin of the Julius-Maximilians University in Würzburg (Germany), and Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre for Medical History of the University of Exeter (UK). He has held postdoctoral and research positions at the Warburg Institute of London, the University of Exeter, the University of Padua and the Folger Institute of Washington D.C., and is the founder and current Director of the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR) in Pisa. His interests cover areas such as metaphysics, history of technology and reconstruction of historical instruments, and history of quantification and applied mathematics, with a particular emphasis on the recovery of classical and medieval philosophy, literature and experimental practices in the early modern period.
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Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations

List of FiguresList of Plates

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part One: Premises

Chapter One: Body and Anatomy in the Galenic Tradition

The Reflourishing of Anatomical Studie

Questions of Method

Soul and Anatomy

Materia sentiens

Generation and Essence

Galenic Anthropology

Alexandrianism and Galenism

Chapter Two: The Soul, A Physical Question

The Seat of the Rational Soul

The Brain: Form and Function

Sensus communis

The Relation between the Whole and Its Parts

Vexatae quaestiones

Innate Heat

A Late-Renaissance Polemic: Cesare Cremonini and Pompeo Caimo

Medicine for the Soul and Treatment for the Passions

Part Two: Developments

Chapter Three: From Galen to Huarte: The Quod animi mores and the 'Theory of Ingenium'

Themes and Arguments in the Quod animi mores

Constitution, Typology, and Physiognomy

Analogy and Consecution: An Advanced Model

Juan Huarte's Examen de ingenios (1575)

Natura facit habilem

Intuition and Genius

Principles of Eugenics

From mens to ingenium

Chapter Four: The Matter of the Spirit

Antonio Persio's Trattato dell'ingegno dell'huomo (1576)

From Galenism to Naturalism: Agostino Doni's De natura hominis libri duo (1581)

Naturalism and Medicine in Bernardino Telesio's Quod animal universum (1590)

The 'Two Souls' in Telesio's Philosophy

Spiritus ingenium est: From Physiology to Ethics

Eustachio Rudio's Liber de anima (1611)

Heat and Life

The Vegetable - Animal Continuum

Essence, Quality, and Degree

Part Three: Reactions and Consequences

Chapter Five: Passion and Pathology: The Response of Aristotelianism

The Individual, Nature, and Character in Francesco Piccolomini's Universa philosophia de moribus (1583) Causal Consecution

Natural Inclination and Pathology

Cesare Cremonini's Quaestio: utrum animi mores corporis sequantur temperamentum

Lectures I-III

Lectures IV-V

Lectures VI-VII

Forms of Causality: The Model of Intrinsic Finality

Giovanni Battista Persona's Commentary on the Quod animi mores (1602)

The Ambiguous Relation between Mind and Brain

'Removing the Animal'

Chapter Six: Beyond Tradition: Santorio and Descartes

The Concept of Equilibrium Transformed: Santorio

From Degree to Quantity

Differences and Analogies: Santorio, Galileo, and Alexandrian Science

Substance and Quality in the Methodus vitandorum errorum omnium (1603)

Situs, Figura, Numerus

The Body and the Machine

Sources and Problems in Descartes' Medicine

Experiment or Observation? Descartes on the Movement of the Heart and the Arteries Unsettling Similarities

Descartes and Naturalism: A Project in Common

Vestiges of Animality

Final Remarks: The Role of Tradition in Medical Thought

Plates

Bibliography

- Manuscripts

- Ancient Print Editions (Up to the 18th Century)

- Secondary Literature

Indices

- Index of Concepts and Terms

- Index of Names and Titles

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BIGOTTI, Fabrizio. Physiology of the soul: mind, body and matter in the galenic tradition of the late renaissance (1550-1630). Brepols Publishers, 2019.