Papers by Barbara Di Gennaro Splendore
Plants in 16th and 17th Century Botany between Medicine and Science Edited by Fabrizio Baldassarri, 2023
In 1591, physician Prospero Alpini (1553-1617) published The Dialogue on Balsam (De balsamo dialo... more In 1591, physician Prospero Alpini (1553-1617) published The Dialogue on Balsam (De balsamo dialogus), a treatise on a medicinal plant called balsam. At the time, many believed this exceptionally expensive commodity was extinct. The dialogue was uniquely set in Egypt between three characters: Abdella and Abdachim, respectively characterized as "Egyptian physician" and "Jew," and Prosper Alpinus, the "Italian". Through the analysis of Alpini's 1591–1592 works on Egypt and especially of the treatise on balsam, this essay contributes to the historiography exploring the production of new knowledge on materia medica at the end of the sixteenth century. I argue that in the balsam dialogue Alpini presented natural knowledge on balsam as a cross-cultural scientific production.
Nuncius, 2021
A survey of early modern texts whose titles include the terms theriac and mithridate reveals over... more A survey of early modern texts whose titles include the terms theriac and mithridate reveals over 500 publications printed across Europe between 1497 and 1800. These texts present a distinct sequence of medical genres: most of the early theriac-related texts were medical treatises for medical practitioners written by physicians and scholars. Later, apothecaries issued theriac-related publications for lay audiences. Theriac, thus, underwent a slow transition from being the object of scientific study to a common drug consumed by patients across the social spectrum. I argue that such theriac-related apothecary publications were fundamental components in the commodification of theriac. My analysis of these publications-especially formulas, virtues, and celebrations-shows that apothecaries reinterpreted and disseminated scholarly medical knowledge, thereby granting lasting visibility to theriac and mithridate.
Annals of Science, 2016
The apothecary occupied a liminal position in early modern society between profit and healing. Fi... more The apothecary occupied a liminal position in early modern society between profit and healing. Finding ways to distance their public image from trade was a common problem for apothecaries across Europe. This article uses the case of a Bolognese apothecary, Filippo Pastarino, to address the question of how early modern apothecaries chose to represent themselves to political authorities and to the wider public. ‘Mercy’, alongside ‘craft’, was a pillar of apothecaries’ social identity. By contrast, no matter how central financial transactions (‘money’) were to their activity, apothecaries did not want to be perceived as merchants. Thus, the assistance and advice apothecaries provided to patients and customers resulted as central aspects of their social role. In this context, Bolognese apothecaries aimed to defend their current status, which had been challenged by naturalist Ulysses Aldrovandi, city authorities and local monasteries. However, Pastarino's claims can also be seen as antecedents to the self-legitimizing strategy that seventeenth-century artisans deployed when faced with the need to enhance their new status as natural philosophers. The present study attributes a name, a date of birth and a shop to Filippo Pastarino, revising previous interpretations. More broadly, by focusing on how these artisans defended their position in the city it enriches our understanding of the self-representation of apothecaries.
Alpiniana , 2018
l dialogo sul balsamo pubblicato da Alpini nel 1591 si propone come un testo fortemente innovativ... more l dialogo sul balsamo pubblicato da Alpini nel 1591 si propone come un testo fortemente innovativo. Merito sostanziale del dialogo è quello di intervenire in una questione fortemente controversa all'epoca sostenendo posizioni distanti da ciò che comunemente si riteneva di sapere sulla pianta. La scelta di Alpini di accordare autorevolezza a due medici infedeli, fittizi ma disegnati su persone realmente conosciute al Cairo, rappresenta una soluzione retorica di coraggio e apertura.
Questo saggio analizza le strategie retoriche di Alpini riguardo alle fonti egiziane utilizzate nel De balsamo e le confronta con le altre opere di Alpini pubblicate negli stessi anni. Come si vedrà, in questi testi la relazione fra Alpini e i suoi interlocutori egiziani cambia significativamente, perfino all’interno di uno stesso volume. Il confronto fra il De medicina, il De plantis e il De balsamo mostra che le strategie retoriche di Alpini, e in particolare quelle che riguardano il rispetto e l’autorevolezza accordati agli informatori egiziani, non sono univoche ma dipendono dagli obiettivi di Alpini e dai problemi che dovette affrontare, sono cioè parte integrante dell’argomentazione e del contenuto delle opere.
in Mungo Campbell and Nathan Flis, eds., William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018), 2017
in Mungo Campbell and Nathan Flis, eds., William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum (New Haven and London: Yale University Press), 2018
Catalogue entry, pp. 226–27
Book Reviews by Barbara Di Gennaro Splendore
Renaissance Quarterly, 2022
who argue that metaphors "are central to human cognition and are rooted in embodied experience" (... more who argue that metaphors "are central to human cognition and are rooted in embodied experience" (156), Keitt states that one can trace how "the body as a source domain has changed over time in the context of our cultural history" (156). Scholars in this collection employ the bodily metaphor to describe as surgical operations what early modern physicians did on their own books and those deemed prohibited by the Inquisition. Since the Inquisition believed that books, like people, could become agents of contamination (Baudry), the infected members needed to be subjected to operations like those that a surgeon would perform on a sick body. This collection is a precious resource for historians of early modern medicine and the Inquisition, and for scholars interested in examining the roles physicians played in the intersecting interests of members of the secular society and the Inquisition, in the negotiation of overlapping disciplinary boundaries, and in the application of learned theories to the practice of a multifaceted social context.
Pharmacy in History, 2019
https://recipes.hypotheses.org/12141
“They [the Italians] seem to commence everything with spirit to get tired of it before it is fin... more “They [the Italians] seem to commence everything with spirit to get tired of it before it is finished.”
Talks by Barbara Di Gennaro Splendore
ESHS Conference Barcelona
Martijn van Beek & Marieke van den Doel The period during which human activities have permanently... more Martijn van Beek & Marieke van den Doel The period during which human activities have permanently interfered with the atmosphere and the geology of the earth is often referred to as the Anthropocene. The cause of this human behaviour has often been identified as a particular way of thinking: Western thought, or more precisely humanism. Humanism is said to have contributed to an anthropocentric-a human-centred-worldview. Braidotti suggests that this worldview took shape during the early modern period, referring to Pico della Mirandola's On the Dignity of Man (1486) and Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. 1
2022 Invited Talk at Social Studies of Medicine Department, McGill University, Montreal
2019 Panel organized at the American Association for the History of Medicine Conference, Columbus... more 2019 Panel organized at the American Association for the History of Medicine Conference, Columbus (OH)
2020, Yale University - Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio (Bologna) Guest Lecture in "Cultures of Wes... more 2020, Yale University - Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio (Bologna) Guest Lecture in "Cultures of Western Medicine" Prof. John H. Warner
2020, Yale University, Guest Lecture in "Western Medical Cultures" Prof. John H. Warner
2019, International Workshop "Popular Medical Books in Early Modern Europe", Royal Holloway, Univ... more 2019, International Workshop "Popular Medical Books in Early Modern Europe", Royal Holloway, University of London
2020, 9th European Society for the History of Science Conference, Visual, Material and Sensory Cu... more 2020, 9th European Society for the History of Science Conference, Visual, Material and Sensory Cultures of Science, Bologna (Italy)
2019, 44th International Congress for the History of Pharmacy, Washington DC
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Papers by Barbara Di Gennaro Splendore
Questo saggio analizza le strategie retoriche di Alpini riguardo alle fonti egiziane utilizzate nel De balsamo e le confronta con le altre opere di Alpini pubblicate negli stessi anni. Come si vedrà, in questi testi la relazione fra Alpini e i suoi interlocutori egiziani cambia significativamente, perfino all’interno di uno stesso volume. Il confronto fra il De medicina, il De plantis e il De balsamo mostra che le strategie retoriche di Alpini, e in particolare quelle che riguardano il rispetto e l’autorevolezza accordati agli informatori egiziani, non sono univoche ma dipendono dagli obiettivi di Alpini e dai problemi che dovette affrontare, sono cioè parte integrante dell’argomentazione e del contenuto delle opere.
Book Reviews by Barbara Di Gennaro Splendore
Talks by Barbara Di Gennaro Splendore
Questo saggio analizza le strategie retoriche di Alpini riguardo alle fonti egiziane utilizzate nel De balsamo e le confronta con le altre opere di Alpini pubblicate negli stessi anni. Come si vedrà, in questi testi la relazione fra Alpini e i suoi interlocutori egiziani cambia significativamente, perfino all’interno di uno stesso volume. Il confronto fra il De medicina, il De plantis e il De balsamo mostra che le strategie retoriche di Alpini, e in particolare quelle che riguardano il rispetto e l’autorevolezza accordati agli informatori egiziani, non sono univoche ma dipendono dagli obiettivi di Alpini e dai problemi che dovette affrontare, sono cioè parte integrante dell’argomentazione e del contenuto delle opere.
Risvegliandosi oggi, un medico del Cinquecento non avrebbe alcuna difficoltà a riconoscere la quarantena e i cordoni sanitari che si stanno attuando per il Covid19. Tecnicamente la quarantena è l'isolamento dei malati o dei sospetti malati, mentre il cordone sanitario prevede restrizioni alla mobilità all'interno di un'area geografica definita. Queste sono fra le pratiche mediche che meno sono cambiate nel tempo. Gli abitanti di Firenze nel Seicento, Marsiglia nel Settecento, Hong Kong nell'Ottocento, New York o la Chinatown di San Francisco del Novecento riconoscerebbero senza di difficoltà il sequestro delle navi, l'isolamento ...