The History of Syphilis in The XVI Century and The Pivotal Role of Luigi Luigini in the Renaissance

Syphilis is the prime example of a “new disease” which triggered a transnational (European) discussion among physicians. It appeared between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Times (at the beginning of the sixteenth century), a time in which medicine was changing from a dogmatic to an experimental discipline. The main changes were in the field of anatomy: in 1543, the same year of the astronomy-disrupting work by Nicolas Copernicus, the new less dogmatic and more empirical approach to anatomy by Andreas Vesalius was published. Nevertheless, in the Renaissance, medicine remains a tradition-bound discipline, proud of its millennial history and its superiority over the empirical, non-academic healers. When syphilis appeared in Europe, several explanations were elaborated. In the mid-16th century, an Italian doctor Luigi Luigini (born in 1526) published in Venice a collection of all the works on syphilis that appeared until 1566. He wanted to entrust to colleagues, contemporary and future, a compendium of all that was known about the “new” disease (the Latin term Novus means both “new” and “strange”). According to the most authors of the collection, the disease is in fact “new” and “strange”. Some authors of the collection find it impossible that authorities like Hippocrates and Galen overlooked it. Luigini’s work shows the authors’ effort to absorb syphilis in the corpus of academic medicine and affirm the authority of academic physicians against the empirical healers.

The History of the Unani Medicine in Central Asia

This article discusses the history of traditional medicine in Central Asia. Central Asia is one of the centers of traditional medicine. Since ancient times, medicine has developed here. In the period of the Muslim Renaissance, medicine rose to its peak here. One well-known tabib was Abu Sakhl Masikhiy. He wrote a book on medicine "Kitob al - Mi'a." He was one of the mentors of Ibn Sina and encouraged to write a canon of medical science. The Canon of Medicine - is the great medical work of Avicenna. Their completed in 1025. Great Unani physicians of the East Al-Beruny and Abu Ali ibn Sina (Avicenna) wrote their enormous works in the Arabian language. Avicenna and his school played a big role in the development of medicine in the world. Above-mentioned proposals can be inferred: In Central Asia, Unani medicine developed for many centuries, this area was one of the hotbeds of this school and has a peculiar character.

Health in the Renaissance

In the Renaissance medicine was still based largely on the works of Galen, but increasingly the Galenic medical paradigm was tested and modified. This was in part the result of new findings in anatomy, in part the result of new reflection on the nature and sources of health. The humanists pointed to cultural and physical factors to account for the flourishing of the human person, though figures such as Cardano continued to work with the Galenic idea of the six non-naturals. Ficino, Francis Bacon, and others proposed that one could preserve health through a “medicine of the mind” that would be grounded partly in an understanding of the states of the body, in part on the mind’s influence on the body. Consideration was also given to defining just what it means to live a flourishing life.

Astrologiczne i humoralne uwarunkowania wyglądu ciała ludzkiego. Johannesa ab Indagine Introductiones apotelesmaticae in Chyromantiam, Physiognomiam, Astrologiam Naturalem complexiones hominum naturas planetarum (1522) na tle kultury umysłowej renesansu

This article describes the impact of humoral theory and astrology on the description of human body in four types of temperaments (choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine and melancholic) in the Renaissance writings. The most important of them is an antique book entitled Introductiones apotelesmaticae in Chyromantiam, Physiognomiam, Astrologiam Naturalem complexiones hominum naturas planetarum written by Johannes Indagine and printed in 1522. Other books from this period are: Enchiridion Physiognomiae co[m] pe[n]diosu[m]: cu[m] figuris facieru[m] (1532) by Simonenide Louicz, Problemata Aristotelis. Gadki… o składności członk.w człowieczych (1535) by Andrzej Glaber, Phisionomia hinc inde ex illustribus scriptoribus… recollecta (1518) by Johann von Glogau. The article describes the humoral theory of diseses, which roots were created by Hippocrates and Galen, and the doctrine of the four humors dominated Medieval and Renaissance medicine. This theory held that in the body there are four humors or bodily fluids (moists) held the secret to temperaments. These humors were: blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. A proper domination of each fluid was a cause of characteristic patterns of appropriate temperament: melancholic, sanguine, choleric and phlegmatic. The theory of four temperaments was also intrinsically tied to astrology, beginning with a natal birth chart interpretations to the impact of diffrent planets (Zodiac) on the organs in human body. Astrology was also helpful in the interpretation of temperaments (personality types) with their connection to the picture of human face, which was analyzed by the medieval physiognomy and also to physical appearance: shape of the body, colour of the skin, musculature and hair. The article also describes the correlations connecting the theory of four humors with birth (natal) charts and looking which planet has the impact on each temperament and human body, with negative or positive domination of diffrent character qualities. And finally, there is a detailed reconstruction of physiognomic types of human types of four temperaments, based on the book from 1522 Introductiones apotelesmaticae in Chyromantiam, Physiognomiam, Astrologiam Naturalem complexiones hominum naturas planetarum by Indagine. The author discusses a planet’s positions and conjunctions with other planets in horoscope and their impact on temperament, physical posture, character traits, with some medical comments.