scholarly journals Healing with Mercury: The Uses of Mercury in Arabic Medical Literature

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 831-866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Bachour
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Medical Literature ◽  
Knowledge Transmission ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
External Application ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Textual Traditions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Second Period

Abstract Three textual traditions can be discerned in Arabic medical literature: the early translations from Greek, Syriac and Indian sources; the autochthonous tradition, which reached its height between the tenth and thirteenth centuries; and the translations from Latin sources, beginning in the seventeenth century. This study traces the medical use of mercury and its derivatives within these traditions. The Greek works translated into Arabic like those of Galen or Paul of Aegina did not prescribe mercury as a remedy for human beings because of its toxicity. However, many scholars of the second period, including Rhazes (d. 925), Ibn al-Jazzār (d. 979), Avicenna (d. 1037), Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Zuhr (d. 1131) and Muḥammad al-Idrīsī (d. 1166), described the external application of mercury. Many terms were used to describe these varieties of mercury – the living (ziʾbaq ḥayy), the dead (ziʾbaq mayyit), the murdered (ziʾbaq maqtūl), the sublimated (ziʾbaq muṣaʿʿad) and the dust of mercury (turāb al-ziʾbaq). To reconstruct the meaning of these terms, I examine various recipes for mercurial preparation given in these works. The internal use of mercury is documented in the sixteenth century in a work by Dawūd al-Anṭākī (d. 1599), who used the term sulaymānī to refer to a sublimated derivative of mercury. I attempt to reconstruct the modalities of knowledge transmission from the Indian and Persian East into Arabic medicine, and from the Arabic world into the Latin West. I also address the impact of translations into Arabic of Latin works in the seventeenth century, such as the Practicae medicinae and Institutionum medicinae by Daniel Sennert (d. 1637), the Antidotarium generale et speciale by Johann Jacob Wecker (d. 1586) and the Basilica Chymica by the Paracelsian Oswaldus Crollius (d. 1608).

The Seventeenth Century Doctrine of Plastic Nature

1950 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
William B. Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
English History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Methods ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Circulation Of The Blood

Few eras are more interesting and profitable to study than those in which the basic ideas of mankind change under the impact of new discoveries and ideas. Our own appears to be such a period; of previous ages perhaps only the ebullient Renaissance can equal it. At its English beginnings in the sixteenth century men reached avidly for new experiences; in the course of time they tried to codify them into theories which would do justice to the observed facts and at the same time harmonize as far as possible with the dicta transmitted from the past. These early efforts resulted in the foundation of the modern methods of science, not to mention permanent and still unchallenged achievements like Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood or Boyle's theory of gases. Such is the seventeenth century: the first great age of scientific generalization in English history.

The Jews and the Reformation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Austin
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
First Century ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Jewish Learning ◽  
The Impact

This book examines the attitudes of various Christian groups in the Protestant and Catholic Reformations towards Jews, the Hebrew language, and Jewish learning. Martin Luther's writings are notorious, but Reformation attitudes were much more varied and nuanced than these might lead us to believe. The book has much to tell us about the Reformation and its priorities, and it has important implications for how we think about religious pluralism more broadly. The book begins by focusing on the impact and various forms of the Reformation on the Jews and pays close attention to the global perspective on Jewish experiences in the early modern period. It highlights the links between Jews in Europe and those in north Africa, Asia Minor, and the Americas, and it looks into the Jews' migrations and reputation as a corollary of Christians' exploration and colonisation of several territories. It seeks to next establish the position Jews occupied in Christian thinking and society by the start of the Reformation era, and then moves on to the first waves of reform in the earliest decades of the sixteenth century in both the Catholic and Protestant realms. The book explores the radical dimension to the Protestant Reformation and talks about identity as the heart of a fundamental issue associated with the Reformation. It analyzes “Counter Reformation” and discusses the various forms of Protestantism that had been accepted by large swathes of the population of many territories in Europe. Later chapters turn attention to relations between Jews and Christians in the first half of the seventeenth century and explore the Sabbatean movement as the most significant messianic movement since the first century BCE. In conclusion, the book summarizes how the Jews of Europe were in a very different position by the end of the seventeenth century compared to where they had been at the start of the sixteenth century. It recounts how Jewish communities sprung up in places which had not traditionally been a home to Jews, especially in Eastern Europe.

The Bohemian Reformations

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Louthan
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Impact

The article examines religious changes in Bohemia and Moravia from the age of Emperor Charles IV (1346–1378) through the first half of the seventeenth century. It begins by considering the vibrant ecclesiastical landscape in the generation before Hus. After reviewing the tumultuous events of the Hussite era, it evaluates both the radical and more conservative legacy of this movement with the development of the Utraquist Church and the Unity of Brethren. Entering the sixteenth century, the article analyzes the impact of Luther and Calvin on the Bohemian churches, the dynamics of confessional cooperation and conflict. The essay closes with an investigation of the early seventeenth century, events leading to the outbreak of the Thirty Years War, the re-Catholization of the region, the exile generation of John Comenius, and the survival of Protestant enclaves within the kingdom.

Image, Instruction, and Emotion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Heal
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Devotional Literature ◽  
Religious Instruction ◽  
The Impact

Chapter 4 turns from the confessional to the devotional image, investigating seventeenth-century transformations in the ways in which theologians and pastors understood images’ spiritual value. It considers the rise of new types of piety during the late sixteenth century: renewed interest in mysticism and a flourishing of devotional literature aimed at the laity. It considers the impact of the Thirty Years’ War on Lutheran religious life. Drawing in particular on the writings of Johann Arndt (1555–1621), it argues that during the late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century images were afforded a new role in Lutheran piety: their affective power—their ability to move Christians’ hearts and souls—was given new emphasis. It explores the increasing significance ascribed to images through looking at Bilderbibeln, cycles of biblical illustrations, and other works of religious instruction.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Foreign Language Values in Sweden: A Social History

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parvin Gheitasi ◽  
Eva Lindgren ◽  
Janet Enever
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Social History ◽  
Social World ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
French And English ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This paper gives an account of the history of foreign language values in Sweden from the seventeenth century to the present. The paper is informed by sociocultural standpoints on language and language learning according to which language is a dynamic tool that is appropriated by individuals to achieve particular purposes, and that dialogically creates and renews our social world(s).  Since the sixteenth century, three languages (German, French and English) have been taught in Sweden as foreign languages during particular eras. In this paper, we explore how language value can be understood as a system that evolves over time as a result of triggers such as power, trade and personal benefits. The impact of these variables on Swedish society’s efforts to invest in learning a particular language during specific eras is critically examined from the perspectives of nested systems.

The Impact of Mathematics and Mathematicians

2019 ◽  
pp. 156-160
Author(s):  
Benjamin Fine
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Technological Revolution ◽  
Hard Science ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Modern Mathematics ◽  
The Way

The 1600's ushered in our modern world, but not in the way most people learn in school. There was a revolution; started by Kepler, continued by Galileo, Descartes and Fermat and culminating in Newton and Leibniz. This revolution allowed for the development of modern mathematics which in turn led to modern science and engineering to advance. Hence, the technological revolution occurred which has shaped our present-day existence much more than anything else. In this article we examine these developments during the amazing seventeenth century. We keep an eye on the fact that for whatever reason human beings for the most part seem not to do hard engineering until the hard science is developed and not to do the hard science until the correct mathematics has been discovered.

The Impact of a New Capital City: Madrid, Toledo, and New Castile, 1560-1660

1973 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ringrose
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Economic Stress ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Urban Sector ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Distinctive Type ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The economic development and decline of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Castile has been the subject of considerable research in the last few years, and it has long been assumed that the rise of Madrid played an important role in dislocating the economy of the region. Yet little direct attention has been paid to the actual processes whereby a distinctive type of urban growth, the development of a political capital, undermined the relationship between town and country which was the basis of the economic activity of sixteenth-century Castile. The rapid growth of Madrid, in fact, coincides with the equally spectacular decline of Toledo, the largest urban center in the region until 1600. The interaction between the two cities, and between the urban sector and the countryside, during the period of prolonged economic stress at the close of the sixteenth century, helps to explain the severity of the crisis which Spain experienced in the seventeenth century.

THEOLOGY AND ECONOMY IN THE POPOL WUJ AND THEOLOGIA INDORUM

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Timothy W. Knowlton
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Ritual Activity ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Drawing on modern ethnography, scholars often characterize ancient Maya religion as “covenants” involving human beings generating merit through ritual activity in order to repay a primordial debt to the gods. However, models based on modern ethnography alone would not allow us to recognize the impact on Maya religions of those Christian discourses of debt and merit that accompanied sixteenth-century colonization. This article attempts to historicize our understanding of indigenous Mesoamerican theologies by examining how early Colonial indigenous language texts describe moral and ritual obligations to the gods in terms of their societies’ economies. The specific case study here compares two contemporaneous sixteenth-century K'iche' Maya texts: the Popol Wuj by traditionalist K'iche' elites and the Theologia Indorum by the Dominican friar Domingo de Vico. Comparison of these texts’ use of exchange-related lexicon illustrates that the traditionalist theological discourse of the Popol Wuj, which emphasizes reciprocal obligations between different beings within an ontological hierarchy, came to exist alongside Christian K'iche' discourses with a more mercantile religious language of spiritual debt payment. It is argued that these results have potential implications for our assessment of ethnohistorical sources on indigenous theology from elsewhere throughout Mesoamerica as well.

Academic Feud, Bloodfeud, and William Welwood: Legal Education in St Andrews, 1560–1611-Part I

1998 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W Cairns
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
Legal Culture ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Joint Meeting ◽  
Academic Education

This article, in earlier versions presented as a paper to the Edinburgh Roman Law Group on 10 December 1993 and to the joint meeting of the London Roman Law Group and London Legal History Seminar on 7 February 1997, addresses the puzzle of the end of law teaching in the Scottish universities at the start of the seventeenth century at the very time when there was strong pressure for the advocates of the Scots bar to have an academic education in Civil Law. It demonstrates that the answer is to be found in the life of William Welwood, the last Professor of Law in St Andrews, while making some general points about bloodfeud in Scotland, the legal culture of the sixteenth century, and the implications of this for Scottish legal history. It is in two parts, the second of which will appear in the next issue of the Edinburgh Law Review.

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