Half a century of medical history.
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England↗
Biomedical subjects
Vivian Nutton
Publications and source records attributed to Vivian Nutton.
The fatal embrace: Galen and the history of ancient medicine.
The influence of Galen on the subsequent interpretation of the history of ancient medicine has been substantial. This paper explores the consequences of adopting a non-Galenic perspective in two different areas of research. It argues that Galen's own career, and his own views of the ideal physician, cannot be taken as typical of most ancient medical practitioners; and that the theory of the four humors, blood, bile, black bile, and phlegm, did not become a universal standard until after Galen. That theory was merely one of several variations on the theme of body fluids, and entered Greek medicine relatively late. Hippocratic contemporaries of Galen accepted it alongside other theories from the Corpus, e.g. Diseases I, that modern scholars have viewed as incompatible.
History of Medicine↗
Books, printing and medicine in the Renaissance.
The history of the medical book in the Renaissance is only just beginning: there still are enormous gaps in our knowledge. Some general points may be emphasised: doctors, surgeons and apothecaries were often literate; the culture of the doctor was founded at least as much upon the book as upon practical experience. Much is known about the history of the printing press: but in focusing on expensive, luxury books such as Vesalius' Fabrica we often leave out average products such as the many other anatomy books printed in the 16th century. The most significant feature of printing is perhaps the increase of the amount and variety of what was available and accessible to readers. Looking specifically at one type of book, the plague treatise, the amalgamation of public and private allowed by the printing press becomes apparent. Knowledge was disseminated from universities to the general public: plague texts are scattered in many different private and public libraries, and any attempt at a general survey is bound to be provisional.
Books↗
Noël du Fail, Cardano, and the Paris Medical Faculty.
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Astrology↗
William Harvey's epitaph.
This paper gives the first published English translation of William Harvey's epitaph. The translation is based on a re-examination of the stone itself, and is accompanied by an explanatory commentary.
England↗
Portraits of science. Logic, learning, and experimental medicine.
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Anatomy↗
The diffusion of ancient medicine in the Renaissance.
Ancient Greek medicine was largely transmitted in the Renaissance in the form of Latin translations. Recent scholarship has carefully delineated the sources used, and the printing history of many texts, but, save for anatomy, less has been done to elucidate how their message was received, and how that message itself changed during the sixteenth century.
Books↗