The Medical Context of Matter Theories (1567–1634)
Within the field of History of Early Modern Science, the Ph.D. dissertation is centered on late Renaissance physiology as junction of medicine and theories of matter. The term “physiology” refers to the theoretical part of Renaissance medicine that dealt with the structure and functioning of the healthy human body. Theories of matter designate the doctrines concerning the smallest components of physical nature, the human body included.
The dissertation explores the physiological theories of a series of physicians by means of a comparative analysis of their medical treatises. It evaluates their respective reception of Galenic medical philosophy and the way the latter was adapted to Paracelsian, atomistic and corpuscular conceptions that flourished in the late Renaissance. The dissertation shows that the physiological theories of that time promoted a definition of elements as minimal discontinuous particles. In the early seventeenth century, this interpretation of the element became amalgamated with the notion of atom.
The first part opens with the famous Physiologia (1567) of the French physician Jean Fernel (c.1497- 1558) and continues with the commentary (1577) upon this very text by the French physician Jean Riolan the Elder (1539-1605). The focus lies on the reception of Galenic medical theory by both Fernel, who maintained a Platonic standpoint, and Riolan, who championed a more scholastic view. In particular, it examines their interpretations of the Aristotelian and Galenic theories of the elements and of mixture as the foundation of their respective concepts of temperament and nutrition. It also investigates their reception of the medieval Latin-Arabic conception of elements and humours as championed by Avicenna and the school of Salerno.
The second part of the dissertation explores the “chymical” reinterpretation of physiology by the Danish physician Petrus Severinus (c.1540-1602) and the German physician Andreas Libavius (c.1550-1616). It first examines Severinus’ Idea medicinae philosophicae (1571), which provides a Paracelsian perspective on the notions of elements, seeds and chymical principles (Salt, Sulphur and Mercury), and their role in digestion. It then turns to Libavius’ medical and chymical treatises published prior to his famous Alchymia, notably his Novus de medicina veterum…tractatus (1599). Libavius’ doctrine, which takes the form of a polemical response to the Paracelsians of his time, is largely in line with Fernel’s. However Libavius combines it with explanations drawn from Aristotelian meteorology and medieval alchemy in order to elucidate the concepts of element and homeomerous part.
The third part is devoted to the early seventeenth-century “neo-atomistic” medical theories of the German alchemist and physician Daniel Sennert (1572-1637) and the Dutch engineer and physician Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637). In his De chymicorum…liber (1629), Sennert proposed an atomistic interpretation of elements and mixture which reconciles Fernel’s interpretation with those of Severinus and Libavius. As for Beeckman, his Journal, which covers the years 1604 to 1634, offers an atomistic and mechanistic interpretation of Galenic physiology. While largely inspired by his experience as a hydraulic engineer, his atomistic views are shown to rely also on Fernel’s theory of temperament and Libavius’ notion of homeomerous parts.