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Galenic Medicine and the Atomist Revival: Elements, Particles, and Minima in Late Renaissance Physiology

par Moreau, Elisabeth
Editeur scientifique Lüthy, Christoph H.;Nicoli, Elena
Référence Atoms, Corpuscles and Minima in the Renaissance, Brill, Leiden-Boston, page (56-86)
Publication Publié, 2022

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Résumé :

In the past decades, historians have emphasized the multidisciplinary nature and conceptual disparateness of the atomist revival in the early modern sciences. However, they have not investigated how medicine, and specifically the authority of Galen, has contributed to the emergence of this revival. Indeed, despite Galen’s rejection of atoms and corpuscles, it is possible to trace atomistic conceptions of the elements in late Renaissance medicine. In this essay, I consider Galenic physiology, a medical field that directly intersects with matter theory, as it investigates the role of the elements in the bodily constitution through the notions of “mixture” and “temperament”. By investigating this topic, I elucidate why in the medical texts of the early seventeenth century, the notion of element was at times merged with that of atom, particle, and minimum to explain the body’s functioning.