Experiencing disease and medical treatment in renaissance Italy: Cardinal Pietro Bembo and his circle
This article, which examines contemporaries’ personal experience of illness in Renaissance Italy, is part of a growing literature which concentrates on the patient rather than the practitioner. The basis of this study is the correspondence of Pietro Bembo, the well-known humanist, papal sec...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Institute for Balkan Studies SASA
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Balcanica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-7653/2022/0350-76532253045H.pdf |
| _version_ | 1811155227338866688 |
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| author | Henderson John Živković Valentina |
| author_facet | Henderson John Živković Valentina |
| author_sort | Henderson John |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article, which examines contemporaries’ personal experience of illness
in Renaissance Italy, is part of a growing literature which concentrates on
the patient rather than the practitioner. The basis of this study is the
correspondence of Pietro Bembo, the well-known humanist, papal secretary and
latterly Cardinal, with his cousin Gian Matteo Bembo and his long-standing
secretary and friend, Cola Bruno. These letters are revealing of how a
non-medical man understood and described illness in the sixteenth century,
and his personal experience associated particularly with “mal delle reni”,
which he shared with his friends and recommended treatments. It also reveals
his attitude towards medical practitioners, ranging from scepticism to fully
embracing new therapies such as Holy Wood, which was used to treat the new
epidemic disease of the Great Pox. Indeed he shared his enthusiasm for the
efficacy of this drug with his great friend the physician Girolamo
Fracastoro, the author of Syphilis, the poem which he dedicated to Bembo,
and also of the treatise De contagione et contagiosis morbis (1546). |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:30:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-82679b4994b045f5a0388dade3cbad32 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0350-7653 2406-0801 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:30:39Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Institute for Balkan Studies SASA |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Balcanica |
| spelling | doaj.art-82679b4994b045f5a0388dade3cbad322023-03-10T08:03:11ZengInstitute for Balkan Studies SASABalcanica0350-76532406-08012022-01-01202253456210.2298/BALC2253045H0350-76532253045HExperiencing disease and medical treatment in renaissance Italy: Cardinal Pietro Bembo and his circleHenderson John0Živković Valentina1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9130-5592University of London, Department of History, Classics and Archaeology Birkbeck, London, UK + University of Cambridge, Wolfson College, Cambridge, UKInstitute for Balkan Studies Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Belgrade, SerbiaThis article, which examines contemporaries’ personal experience of illness in Renaissance Italy, is part of a growing literature which concentrates on the patient rather than the practitioner. The basis of this study is the correspondence of Pietro Bembo, the well-known humanist, papal secretary and latterly Cardinal, with his cousin Gian Matteo Bembo and his long-standing secretary and friend, Cola Bruno. These letters are revealing of how a non-medical man understood and described illness in the sixteenth century, and his personal experience associated particularly with “mal delle reni”, which he shared with his friends and recommended treatments. It also reveals his attitude towards medical practitioners, ranging from scepticism to fully embracing new therapies such as Holy Wood, which was used to treat the new epidemic disease of the Great Pox. Indeed he shared his enthusiasm for the efficacy of this drug with his great friend the physician Girolamo Fracastoro, the author of Syphilis, the poem which he dedicated to Bembo, and also of the treatise De contagione et contagiosis morbis (1546).http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-7653/2022/0350-76532253045H.pdfpietro bembogirolamo fracastorogian matteo bembocola brunothe greatpox“mal delle reni” |
| spellingShingle | Henderson John Živković Valentina Experiencing disease and medical treatment in renaissance Italy: Cardinal Pietro Bembo and his circle Balcanica pietro bembo girolamo fracastoro gian matteo bembo cola bruno the greatpox “mal delle reni” |
| title | Experiencing disease and medical treatment in renaissance Italy: Cardinal Pietro Bembo and his circle |
| title_full | Experiencing disease and medical treatment in renaissance Italy: Cardinal Pietro Bembo and his circle |
| title_fullStr | Experiencing disease and medical treatment in renaissance Italy: Cardinal Pietro Bembo and his circle |
| title_full_unstemmed | Experiencing disease and medical treatment in renaissance Italy: Cardinal Pietro Bembo and his circle |
| title_short | Experiencing disease and medical treatment in renaissance Italy: Cardinal Pietro Bembo and his circle |
| title_sort | experiencing disease and medical treatment in renaissance italy cardinal pietro bembo and his circle |
| topic | pietro bembo girolamo fracastoro gian matteo bembo cola bruno the greatpox “mal delle reni” |
| url | http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-7653/2022/0350-76532253045H.pdf |
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