Arts Et Savoirs, 15 | 2021 Medical Humanism, a Problematic Formulation? 2
Arts et Savoirs 15 | 2021 Revisiting Medical Humanism in Renaissance Europe Medical Humanism, a Problematic Formulation? « Humanisme médical », une expression problématique ? Vivian Nutton Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/aes/3925 DOI: 10.4000/aes.3925 ISSN: 2258-093X Publisher Laboratoire LISAA Printed version Date of publication: 1 June 2021 Electronic reference Vivian Nutton, “Medical Humanism, a Problematic Formulation?”, Arts et Savoirs [Online], 15 | 2021, Online since 25 June 2021, connection on 26 June 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/aes/ 3925 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/aes.3925 This text was automatically generated on 26 June 2021. Centre de recherche LISAA (Littératures SAvoirs et Arts) Medical Humanism, a Problematic Formulation? 1 Medical Humanism, a Problematic Formulation? « Humanisme médical », une expression problématique ? Vivian Nutton 1 Almost fifty years ago, the great Paracelsian scholar Walter Pagel wrote a challenging chapter at the end of a volume of essays on Thomas Linacre (c.1560-1524), translator of Galen and Proclus, author of school texts on Latin grammar, and leading spirit in the foundation of the London College of Physicians in 15181. In it, he argued strongly that medical humanism was what he termed a “historical necessity in the era of the Renaissance”, by which he meant that, in some way, the renewal of interest in the ancient classics, and particularly in Galen, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was an essential stimulus to the development of new ideas in Vesalius, Paracelsus, and Harvey. It was a typical Pagel essay, learned and allusive at the same time, and demanding that historians judge authors without the benefit of hindsight even if their ideas were hardly consonant with those of modern medicine.
[Show full text]