The Body of Evidence Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy and Science Editors C.H. Lüthy (Radboud University) P.J.J.M. Bakker (Radboud University) Editorial Consultants Joel Biard (University of Tours) Simo Knuuttila (University of Helsinki) Jürgen Renn (Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science) Theo Verbeek (University of Utrecht) volume 30 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/memps The Body of Evidence Corpses and Proofs in Early Modern European Medicine Edited by Francesco Paolo de Ceglia LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Vesalius dissecting a body in secret. Wellcome Collection. CC BY 4.0. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2019050958 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. 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Contents List of Figures vii Contributors viii Introduction: Corpses, Evidence and Medical Knowledge in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1 Francesco Paolo de Ceglia Part 1 From Divination to Autopsy 1 Saving the Phenomenon: Why Corpses Bled in the Presence of Their Murderer in Early Modern Science 23 Francesco Paolo de Ceglia 2 Unfamiliar Faces: the Identification of Corpses in Late Medieval Valencia 53 Carmel Ferragud 3 Reading the Corpse in the Late Middle Ages (Bologna, Mid- 13th Century–Early 16th Century) 71 Tommaso Duranti Part 2 The Uncertainties of the Anatomical Gaze 4 Dissection Techniques, Forensics and Anatomy in the 16th Century 107 Allen Shotwell 5 Monstrous Exegesis: Opening Up Double Monsters in Early Modern Europe 119 Alan W.H. Bates 6 Corpses, Contagion and Courage: Fear and the Inspection of Bodies in 17th-Century London 149 Kevin Siena vi Contents 7 Knowledge from Bodies and Resistance to Anatomical Discourse (Padua, 16th–18th Centuries) 175 Massimo Galtarossa Part 3 Corpses and Evidences 8 Reading Moral Conduct and Physical Characteristics: the Classification of Suicide in Early Modern Europe 193 Alexander Kästner 9 Corpses and Confessions: Forensic Investigation and Infanticide in Early Modern Germany 224 Margaret Brannan Lewis 10 Visum et Repertum: Medical Doctrine and Criminal Procedures in France and Naples (17th–18th Centuries) 245 Diego Carnevale 11 Frightening Whirlpools: Drowning in France in the 18th Century 270 Lucia De Frenza and Caterina Tisci Bibliography 295 Index 349 Figures 1.1 Cruentation in the episode of Hans Spiess (Diebold Schilling, Luzerner Chronik, 16th century, Zentral- und Hochschulbibliothek of Lucerne) 33 5.1 Martin Luther’s monk-calf, allegedly born near Freiburg on 8 December, 1522 (Melanchthon and Luther, Deuttung) 123 5.2 The pope-ass found on the banks of the Tiber (Melanchthon and Luther, Deuttung) 123 5.3 The monster of Ravenna, as illustrated in Batman’s Doome 125 5.4 A triple monster, from Batman’s Doome 128 5.5 A double monster born in Württemberg in 1511 (Anon., Monstrificus puer) 135 5.6 A double monster born near Oxford in 1552 (Anon., Thou shalte understande) 137 5.7 The findings in Jean Riolan’s autopsy of a double monster in 1605 (Riolan, De Monstro) 141 5.8 Everard Crynsz van der Maes. Conjoined twins born in the Low Countries in 1628 (detail) 143 6.1 “The Manner of Dissecting the Pestilential Body,” Frontispiece (George Thomson, Loimotomia, or, The Pest Anatomized, London, 1666) 157 Contributors Alan W. Bates is Honorary Senior Lecturer in Pathology at University College, London, a consultant to the Royal Free Hospital, and a coroner’s pathologist for North London and the City of London. He is the author of various books and articles on the history of anatomy and embryology, including The Anatomy of Robert Knox (Eastbourne, 2010). Diego Carnevale is a Researcher in Early Modern History at the University of Naples Federico II. His principal works focus on the socioeconomic and political history of burial practices in Naples from the 1650s to 1860. He has carried out further research on the same topic in Paris and London. He is currently researching the subject of the conflicts surrounding the administration of urban water supplies during the early modern period, with a comparative approach between Southern Italy and France. Francesco Paolo de Ceglia is a Professor of History of Science at the University of Bari, where he directs the Interuniversity Research Center “Seminar of the History of Science.” His research focuses on the history of corporeality. He has published monographs and articles on the relationship between the history of science and theology, including Storia della definizione di morte (Milan, 2014) and Il segreto di san Gennaro. Storia naturale di un miracolo napoletano (Milan, 2016). Lucia De Frenza received her PhD in History of Science and is currently working at the Seminar of History of Science of the University of Bari. Her main research interests focus on the history of electrical theories in XVIII and XIX centuries, the history of medicine, the history of institutions and medical communication between the XVIII and XX centuries. She is the author of several articles and monographs including I sonnambuli delle miniere: Amoretti, Fortis, Spallanzani e il dibattito sull’elettrometria organica e minerale in Italia (1790–1816) (Florence, 2005). Tommaso Duranti is a Senior Assistant Professor (tenured) at the Department of History and Cultures (DiSCi) of the University of Bologna. His research concerns the Contributors ix political institutions of the late Middle Ages and the history of university med- icine; regarding the latter, in particular, he has dealt with the origins, develop- ment and organization of the medical Studium of Bologna; the delineation of the role of medical experts and the process of professionalization of medical men during the late Middle Ages; and the doctor-patient relationship in the Middle Ages. Carmel Ferragud is a Researcher of the Interuniversity Institute López Piñero and a Professor of History of Science at the University of Valencia. He is a member of the research team Sciència.cat. His research has focused on medical practitioners and the practice of medicine during the Middle Ages in the Crown of Aragon. He is currently interested in the topic of medicine in the sermons of Saint Vincent Ferrer, as well as forensic medicine and astrology. He is the author of: Medicina i promoció social a la Baixa Edat Mitjana (Corona d’Aragó, 1350–1410) (Madrid, 2005) and La cura dels animals: menescals i menescalia a la València medieval (Catarroja, 2009). Massimo Galtarossa has a PhD in History at the University of Verona and is an independent scholar. He published a volume entitled Medicina Repubblicana. Scelte politiche e ben- essere del corpo nello Studio di Padova fra ‘500 e ‘700 (Rome, 2012). Alexander Kästner is a Post-Doc in Early Modern History at the Institute of History at TU Dresden and a Principal Investigator at the Collaborative Research Center 1285 “Invec- tivity.” His research and numerous publications explore various aspects of the history of death, with a particular focus on the histories of suicide, anatomy and lifesaving programs from c. 1600 onwards. He is the author of Tödliche Geschichte(n). Selbsttötungen und Suizidversuche in Kursachsen 1547–1815 (Konstanz 2012). His current research deals with the social history of the con- cept of cold in the 18th century as well as with the invective mode of commu- nication and the emergence of a public sphere during the early Reformation. Margaret Brannan Lewis is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Her research focuses on early modern crime, sex, reproduction, medicine, and obstetrics, in particular in Central Europe. Her publications include Infanticide and Abortion in Early Modern Germany (London, 2016). x Contributors R. Allen Shotwell is a Professor of Humanities and Director of the Center for Humanities and Medicine at Ivy Tech Community College. A long-time teacher of science and technology and an academic administrator, he more recently received his PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine from Indiana University with a dissertation on the practices and techniques of dissection in the 16th century. His research and writing currently focus on Renaissance anatomy and its connections to medical practice. Kevin Siena is Associate Professor of History at Trent University (Canada). He is the author of Venereal Disease, Hospitals and the Urban Poor: London’s ‘Foul Wards’ 1600– 1800 (Rochester NY, 2004), the editor of Sins of the Flesh: Responding to Sexual Disease in Early Modern Europe (Toronto, 2005) and (with Jonathan Reinarz) A Medical History of Skin: Scratching the Surface (Abingdon and New York, 2010). He recently published Rotten Bodies: Class and Contagion in Eighteenth- Century Britain (New Haven, 2019). Caterina Tisci received her PhD in History of Science and is a teacher of philosophy and his- tory in high schools. She is currently collaborating with the Universities of Bari and Lecce on research about the history of medicine and healthcare be- tween the XVIII and XX centuries.