The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts THE SECRETS OF HEALTH; VIEWS ON HEALING FROM THE EVERYDAY LEVEL TO THE PRINTING PRESSES IN EARLY MODERN VENICE 1500-1650 A Dissertation in History by John Gordon Visconti @ 2009 John Gordon Visconti Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2009 ii The dissertation of John Gordon Visconti was reviewed and approved* by the following: Ronnie Hsia Edwin Earle Sparks Professor of History Dissertation Co-Advisor Chair of Committee A. Gregg Roeber Professor of Early Modern History and Religious Studies Dissertation Co-Advisor Interim Head of the Department of History Tijana Krstic Assistant Professor of Early Modern History Dissertation Co-Advisor Melissa W. Wright Associate Professor in Geography and in the Program of Women's Studies *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii Abstract In early modern Venice, and, to a large extent, the entire European continent, medical practitioners from a wide variety of social levels shared many similar ideas and common assumptions about the body, health, sickness and healing. Ideas regarding moderation in lifestyle, physiological balance within the body, the need to physically eliminate badness from the sick body, and the significance of temperature, moisture and dryness, can be found in healing practices across the social spectrum. The idea that the human body and the heavenly cosmos were divinely linked and that good health depended upon a harmonious relationship with nature can be found at all different social levels of early modern thought. The main reason for these similarities is that ideas about such things, even at the most scholarly levels, were intuitively derived, intellectually plausible, and commonsensical, hence, they occurred to many different people. Modern historians of medicine impose artificial distinctions upon early modern healing, dividing medical practitioners, knowledge, and healing practices up into separate categories for their own organizational needs. Renaissance medical philosophers did much the same thing. During the early modern period, scholarly medicine suffered a discursive crisis. In a period of professional upheaval characterized by the expansion and fragmentation of their field, the major players in Renaissance universities investigated the past, seeking information by which to affirm and secure their own scholarly positions at the expense of others. Both then and now, the stories such people produce oversimplify the rich and complex history of early modern medicine and pigeon-hole its practitioners into narrow stereotypes. iv Table of Contents Introduction. Divide and Distinguish: An Anatomy of Historical Writing on Early Modern European Healing………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1. Scholarly Medicine during the Late Italian Renaissance: Historical Roots, Tradition and Change…………………………………………………….………28 Chapter 2. Humors, Complexion, Spirits and Energy: The Technical Side of a Philosophical System; Galenic Medicine during the Late Renaissance..…..…………..108 Chapter 3. The Secrets of a Sixteenth-Century Venetian Woman: Isabella Cortese and Alchemical Medicine………………………………………………………………169 Chapter 4. Boundaries, Turf Wars, and Scathing Critiques: Various Types of Medical Practitioners Examine Each Other, 1550-1680………………………….…219 Chapter 5. Regulating the Venetian Medical Marketplace: Charlatans, Mountebanks, Empirics, and Apothecaries—The Institutions that Governed Them and the Laws that Policed Them, 1500–1700……………………………….…..290 Conclusion. The Secrets of Health: Early Modern Views on Healing…………………336 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...….368 v List of Figures “The Humoural System”….....................................................................................................136 vi Abbreviations ASV Archivio di Stato di Venezia ASP Archivio di Stato di Padua ASF Archivio di Stato di Firenze BNM Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venezia b. / bb. busta /e fol. folio r. recto v. verso vol. volume vii Acknowledgements Completing this dissertation required nine years of work. I incurred many debts during those years. Funds from Penn State University partially offset my research expenses during my time abroad. Monies from the Josephine B. Weiss endowment and the Sparks scholarship helped me considerably. But without the support, encouragement, guidance and technical assistance of approximately two dozen people, this project may never have been completed. I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the teachers, colleagues, classmates, family and friends that helped me reach the finish line. No two scholars directly shaped and influenced my academic interests more than Guido Ruggiero and Ronnie Hsia. After completing an MA degree under his tutelage at the University of Miami, Guido Ruggiero encouraged me to pursue a doctorate at Penn State. Guido served as my thesis advisor for three years in Pennsylvania, before moving on to pursue other interests. Fortunately, Professor Ronnie Hsia willingly took over as my graduate advisor and thesis chair. During our years together, Dr Hsia provided first-rate mentoring, professional support and nurturing friendship. I shall always be grateful to both these gentlemen. Many other scholars contributed to my academic development. The list is long, but I would like to thank, in no particular order, Melissa Wright, Gregg Roeber, Tijana Krstic, Federico Barbierato, Stephen Ortega, Robert Proctor, Miriam Bodian, Greg Eghigian, Laura McGough, Michael Krenn and the late Edward L. Dreyer. My interest in early modern natural philosophy in general, and the history of healing in particular, was greatly shaped by Katherine Park, Steven F. Harris and William Eamon. Rebecca Totaro, Mary Fissell and Deborah Harkness viii taught me a great deal about medicine, health and healing during the early modern period. Jennifer Silver provided invaluable technical support during the construction of my dissertation. My years of research in Venice were aided immensely by the guidance and teaching of Professor Federico Barbierato. Federico’s tireless support helped me overcome the linguistic and paleographical challenges of the Venetian archives. Perhaps more importantly, the friendship offered by Federico’s family, his parents Mario and Irene Barbierato, his wife Chiara and their daughter Daria, helped sustain me throughout those years. Much the same can be said for my friendship with Silvia Ferreti. I will always remember the time we shared together. I would never have pursued a doctorate without the encouragement and support of my close friend Stephen Ortega. My interest in early modern European history grew up alongside Dr. Ortega’s work during the late 1990s. But my personal trials and tribulations with graduate coursework, archival research and dissertation writing were made more enjoyable by my dialogue with Stephen throughout the years. In 2002, when a personal problem unrelated to scholarship threatened my studies, Stephen, Nancy and Ana Ortega provided the friendship and support necessary to help me weather the storm. My friend Leah Vincent also helped me through this difficult period. Thank you. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their unconditional support and unwavering encouragement. My parents, Frederick and Margaret Visconti, have been a tower of strength during my fifteen years of graduate school. My wife, Sarah Lawrence, endured many sacrifices for the sake of my dissertation during our first several years together. In fact, Sarah’s loving support has been the most important influence on my dissertation. Our daughter, Veronica, arrived exactly one month prior to my oral defense. Her arrival has been rather inspiring. 1 Introduction Divide and Distinguish: An Anatomy of Historical Writing on Early Modern European Healing This dissertation examines medicine and healing in early modern Venice from 1500 through 1650. Despite its primary focus on Venice, this work will also consider knowledge and ideas regarding the body, health, and sickness among a wide variety of medical practitioners throughout early modern Europe. It will examine university-based medicine and neo-scholarly medical knowledge among amateur healers at the margins of academic society. It will also consider what previous generations of historians called ‘popular healing,’ or methods of curing illness among ordinary people, at the everyday level of life and living. Each chapter considers alleged similarities and differences among various types of prominent healers in early modern Europe through consultations of contemporary sources. To avoid confusion and distance myself from a potentially pejorative term, I shall refer to the final category described above not as ‘popular healing,’ but as ‘vernacular healing.’ Although Venice shall be at the center of this investigation, many non-Italian sources shall also be considered, and much of this work shall touch upon ideas associated with general western European medicine during the late Renaissance. Venice, in fact, represented something of a ‘European capital of medicine’ during the early modern period. The Venetian Republic’s University of Padua, which shall be examined closely in my first two chapters, may have been Europe’s most influential medical school during the period under consideration. The Republic’s great rate of commercial activity ensured that most major medicines flowed through Venice’s borders. In addition, Venice supported a tremendous early