The Clock and the Mirror: Girolamo Cardano and Renaissance Medicine PDF
Preview The Clock and the Mirror: Girolamo Cardano and Renaissance Medicine
The Clock and the Mirror The Clock and the Mirror GIROLAMO CARDANO AND RENAISSANCE MEDICINE Nancy G. Simisi PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY Copyright © 1997 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Chichester, West Sussex All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Siraisi, Nancy G. The clock and the mirror : Girolamo Cardano and Renaissance medicine / Nancy G. Siraisi. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-691-01189-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Cardano, Girolamo, 1501-1576—Contributions in medicine. 2. Medicine—Italy—History—16th century 3. Cardano, Girolamo, 1501-1576—Philosophy. 4. Italy—Intellectual life—16th century. I. Title. R520.C32S57 1997 610'.92—dc21 96-46354 This book has been composed in Galliard Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources Printed in the United States of America by Princeton Academic Press 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 For Nancy Brain CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgments ix Note to the Reader xi Abbreviations xiii PART ONE: Cardano's Medical World CHAPTER 1 Introduction 3 CHAPTER 2 Practitioner and Patients 24 PART TWO: Theory and Practice CHAPTER 3 Argument and Experience 43 CHAPTER 4 Time, Body, Food: The Parameters of Health 70 PART THREE: The Old and the New CHAPTER 5 The Uses of Anatomy 93 CHAPTER 6 The New Hippocrates 119 PART FOUR: Medical Wonders CHAPTER 7 The Hidden and the Marvelous 149 CHAPTER 8 The Medicine of Dreams 174 PART FIVE Medical Narratives CHAPTER 9 Historia, Narrative, and Medicine 195 via CONTENTS CHAPTER 10 The Physician as Patient 214 Epilogue 225 Notes 231 Bibliography 329 Index 353 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THIS BOOK is intended as a contribution to cultural and intellectual his tory as well as to the history of medicine and science. Where premod- ern Europe is concerned, it seems to me impossible to separate the his tory of a large part of medicine not only from social history but also from broad intellectual developments and from the history of learning, reading, and written culture. Accordingly, I began the research that led to this book with the intention of taking a fresh look at areas of Re naissance medicine most closely linked to innovative aspects of con temporary scientific and learned culture. My idea was to complement and move beyond earlier studies that had led me from a group of scholastic physicians in thirteenth- and early-fourteenth-century Bologna to sixteenth-century endeavors to refurbish a medieval text book. It now seemed time to investigate some of the themes of self-con scious and self-proclaimed renewal in which—as well as in technical ac complishments—sixteenth-century medicine is remarkably rich and to try to see how those themes played out in the actual social context of medical writing, teaching, and practice. I hope, indeed, that the result goes some way to accomplish those goals. But things never turn out quite as one plans. I did not originally intend to center the book on an individual. Instead, Cardano caught me. My study has ended up being focused on one remarkable person, the diversity of whose interests linked medicine to a much wider world. Whatever the historiographic merits or demerits of this approach, I have enjoyed writing the book. Over the centuries Cardano has been the sub ject of a large literature, good, bad, and indifferent, and many myths. I hope I do not need to apologize for adding one more book; I have tried not to add to the myths. I owe thanks to many friends and colleagues for their help at differ ent stages of this work. I am especially grateful to Vivian Nutton and Mary Voss who read the manuscript for Princeton University Press and offered very useful suggestions. At different times Ann Blair, Alfonso Ingegno, Michael McVaugh, !Catherine Park, and David Ruderman gave advice and answered queries; Katharine Park also read chapter 1; Andrea Carlino most kindly drew my attention to documents about Cardano in the Archivio di Stato of Rome. Chiara Crisciani shared her learning about medieval medicine in many valuable conversations; I also owe to her kindness much guidance and help in increasing my knowledge of
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