Emotions and the Body in Early Modern Medicine

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Stolberg
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
The Body ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Early Modern Medicine ◽  
External Objects ◽  
Lay Experience

Drawing on Latin treatises, letters, and autobiographical writings, this article outlines the changes in the—thoroughly somatic—learned medical understanding of the emotions (or “affectus/passiones animi”) between 1500 and 1800 and their impact on lay experience. The mixture of the four natural humors explained individuals’ different propensity to certain emotions. The emotions as such, however, were described primarily as movements of the spirits and the blood towards or away from external objects. The term “e(s)motion” emerged. The final part highlights the 18th-century shift from spirits and blood to the nerves as the principal site of the emotions. Physicians and laypersons alike now associated the emotions closely with the peculiar nervous sensibility and irritability of individuals and groups.

scholarly journals ‘Magic coins’ and ‘magic squares’: the discovery of astrological sigils in the Oldenburg Letters

2008 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Marie Roos
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
The Body ◽  
Perceived Efficacy ◽  
Magic Squares ◽  
Early Modern Medicine

Enclosed in a 1673 letter to Henry Oldenburg were two drawings of a series of astrological sigils, coins and amulets from the collection of Strasbourg mathematician Julius Reichelt (1637–1719). As portrayals of particular medieval and early modern sigils are relatively rare, this paper will analyse the role of these medals in medieval and early modern medicine, the logic behind their perceived efficacy, and their significance in early modern astrological and cabalistic practice. I shall also demonstrate their change in status in the late seventeenth century from potent magical healing amulets tied to the mysteries of the heavens to objects kept in a cabinet for curiosos. The evolving perception of the purpose of sigils mirrored changing early modern beliefs in the occult influences of the heavens upon the body and the natural world, as well as the growing interests among virtuosi in collecting, numismatics and antiquities.

Jeu de la paume: Health of the Body and the Mind in Early Modern Medicine

Nuncius ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Concetta Pennuto
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Physical Exercise ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
The Body ◽  
Early Modern Medicine ◽  
Dual Status ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Impact

This article deals with the role that gymnastics and particularly the game of handball (pila palmaria) played in early modern medicine. The game was seen as useful in order to foster good health, both of the body and the mind. Following the tradition of ancient medical sources, early modern philosophers, physicians, ball players and authors – such as Erasmus, Mercuriale, Scaino, Valleriola, Forbet and Hulpeau – elaborated a rich repertory of ideas demonstrating the impact of ball games on the education of young people, on the therapy for various diseases, and on the prevention of illness. Pila palmaria thus enjoyed a dual status, since it could act on the body through physical exercise and on the mind thanks to the pleasure produced in the player’s spirit.

Vesalius annotations and the rise of early modern medicine

The Lancet ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 393 (10173) ◽  
pp. 738-739
Author(s):  
Dániel Margócsy ◽  
Mark Somos ◽  
Stephen N Joffe
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Early Modern Medicine

Introduction: Infertility in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Oren-Magidor ◽  
Catherine Rider
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Early Modern Medicine

scholarly journals FROM THE MONARCHY TREE TO NATION: THE USE OF METAPHORS IN EARLY MODERN FRENCH POLITICAL DISCOURSE

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-68
Author(s):  
Ludmila Pimenova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Human Body ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Social ◽  
Body Metaphor ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
The Republic

The article examines three legal treatises written between the late 16th and late 18th centuries, whose authors used the language of metaphors, analyzing also the way this language was reflected in images. Both jurists and artists tried to demonstrate to their readers and spectators that society was unified and, at the same time, consisted of estates unequal in their status. For this purpose, metaphors of the human body, tree, army, and family were used. Over the period under discussion, the attitude towards metaphors changed significantly. Although the possibility of using the language of metaphors to adequately describe and know society was put into doubt more than once in the 17th and 18th centuries, contemporaries did not abandon this language. In the 18th century, many of the usual metaphors were rethought in Enlightenment literature, as well as in journalism and propaganda texts published on the eve of the French Revolution. The body metaphor received a new interpretation within the framework of the social contract concept, while the image of France as the king’s spouse was transformed into the figure of Marianne the Republic.

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