{"title":"Medical Knowledge: Daniel Sennert’s Views on Scurvy and the Role of Dissertations for Their Dissemination","authors":"Anja-Silvia Goeing","doi":"10.1163/15733823-20251360","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20251360","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores how scurvy, a disease resulting from vitamin C deficiency, was understood and treated in the Holy Roman Empire from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. It focuses on Daniel Sennert’s work on scurvy of 1624 and 1631, which significantly influenced medical education and practice. By examining Sennert’s work and subsequent dissertations supervised by scholars like Werner Rolfinck, the study highlights the role of academic disputations in disseminating medical knowledge. The article reveals that scurvy affected not only seafarers but also impoverished Europeans around the Baltic, integrating traditional cures with emerging scientific theories, thus forming a comprehensive network of medical communication.</p>","PeriodicalId":49081,"journal":{"name":"Early Science and Medicine","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145241969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Behind the Texts: the Collaborative Network of Daniel Sennert’s Dissertations","authors":"Anja-Silvia Goeing","doi":"10.1163/15733823-20251365","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20251365","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The guiding idea behind the Sennert Collaborators database is the recognition that university dissertations of the early modern period were not merely academic exercises but critical artifacts in the creation and dissemination of knowledge. This digital project focuses on the extensive collaborative networks surrounding Daniel Sennert, a pioneering professor of medicine at the University of Wittenberg in the seventeenth century. By cataloging the dissertations he supervised and by mapping the connections between the people and places involved, the database sheds new light on how ideas circulated, evolved, and took root in the intellectual and practical domains of early modern Europe.</p>","PeriodicalId":49081,"journal":{"name":"Early Science and Medicine","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145241962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist Scholastics on the Individuation of Material Substances","authors":"Helen Hattab","doi":"10.1163/15733823-20251342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20251342","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper asks the question whether any peculiar features of Protestant, specifically, Calvinist metaphysical theories of the individuation of bodies could explain the preponderance of Calvinists among early-seventeenth century atomists. By examining the arguments on individuation of the highly influential late-sixteenth century Catholic philosophers, Zabarella and Suarez, I show that Zabarella’s approach to individuation crossed over to the early Lutheran Aristotelian metaphysician, Cornelis Martini, whereas Suarez’s approach was favored by Scheibler – one of the next generation of Scholastic Lutheran philosophers –, and by his equally influential Calvinist contemporary, Burgersdijk. Though the lack of confessional divides indicates that there is no direct link between Calvinist theories of individuation and atomism, I show that Protestant appropriations of Suarez’s account opened up a metaphysically safe space for non-hylomorphic views of bodies.</p>","PeriodicalId":49081,"journal":{"name":"Early Science and Medicine","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Christian History of the Earth?","authors":"Ivano Dal Prete","doi":"10.1163/15733823-20251341","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20251341","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This essay aims to address little-known aspects of the confessionalization of natural philosophy in sixteenth-century Italy, with a focus on controversies surrounding the age and nature of the Earth. Sources suggest that – rather than causing a process – reactions to the Protestant Reformation accelerated and shaped developments already underway at the beginning of the sixteenth century when critics of Aristotelian eternalism began to call for a science of nature more in line with Christian beliefs. While a Christianized history of the Earth emerged as an explicit program in late-sixteenth century Italy, I would argue that Counter-Reformation cultural policies favored, but did not enforce, the confessionalization of the field and that largely secular approaches remained vital, legitimate, and influential.</p>","PeriodicalId":49081,"journal":{"name":"Early Science and Medicine","volume":"281 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conrad Gessner and the Question of the Confessionalization of Natural History","authors":"Andreas Blank","doi":"10.1163/15733823-20251343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20251343","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Did allegorical interpretations of animals disappear from Protestant natural histories due to what has been described as the literalist mentality of the Reformers? This paper uses histories of animals by (or deriving from) the Zurich-based naturalist Conrad Gessner to argue for two claims: First, that not every instance of the disappearance of allegorical meanings can be explained through the emphasis on literal meanings in Reformed hermeneutics; this is so because moral and mystical interpretations of the wild animals of the Book of Job can be found in the commentary by Gessner’s teacher, Conrad Pellikan. Secondly, this paper argues that moral interpretations of ants persist in <i>Insectorum sive minimorum animalium theatrum</i>, a work based on Gessner’s unpublished notes. Such interpretations are compatible with Pellikan’s moral and mystical interpretations of the ants of the Solomonic Proverbs. What does disappear are the eschatological interpretations of ants found in Catholic natural histories such as those of Ulisse Aldrovandi. I conjecture that the repudiation of the notion of personal merit in Reformed theology could explain this divergence.</p>","PeriodicalId":49081,"journal":{"name":"Early Science and Medicine","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Proleptic Principles of Samuel Parker","authors":"Mogens Lærke","doi":"10.1163/15733823-20251345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20251345","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The prolific English divine Samuel Parker (1640–1688) is best known for his works on theology and politics and for his blistering attacks on non-conformity, but was also an early member of the Royal Society who wrote extensively on natural philosophy and theology. My aim in this paper is to highlight a unifying element in this diverse corpus. First, I show how Parker promoted the epistemology and experimental methods of the nascent Royal Society in several early works, where he adopted a weak dispositional nativism rooted in an Epicurean theory of knowledge and mind not unlike the theory advanced by Gassendi. Secondly, I show how, in later polemics against non-conformism and puritanism, Parker repurposed this weak dispositional nativism for his theological and political polemics.</p>","PeriodicalId":49081,"journal":{"name":"Early Science and Medicine","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Place of God: Dutch Philosophical and Theological Debates in the Seventeenth Century","authors":"Antonella Del Prete","doi":"10.1163/15733823-20251344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20251344","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Once he has established the separation of the two substances, Descartes seems to be no longer interested in the location of spiritual substances, unless he has to localize the human mind in the pineal gland or discuss the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It is only in his correspondence with Henry More that he is forced to address this problem, in a debate that links the question of the infinity of the universe and the omnipresence of God. Even if they received little attention in Descartes’s published output, however, both questions became the central theme of the Dutch controversies over Cartesian philosophy: this was one of the issues, in fact, over which the followers of Voetius and Cocceius were opposed. This intra-confessional controversy is underpinned not only by a different evaluation of Cartesian philosophy and the relationship between philosophy and theology, but also by the need to refute Socinian theses about the presence of God in the world. Our case study can also help to show how the appropriation and transformation of a philosophy can be extremely creative when taking place in a cultural context other than the original environment.</p>","PeriodicalId":49081,"journal":{"name":"Early Science and Medicine","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Confessional and Mosaic Physics: Tensions and Commonalities","authors":"Rienk Vermij","doi":"10.1163/15733823-20251340","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20251340","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Many (protestant) confessional philosophers claimed that physics should be exclusively based on the Bible, not on ancient pagan philosophy. At first sight, this program appears very similar to Mosaic philosophy. Still, there are important differences, as demonstrated by an analysis of three works by authors of different backgrounds, who all claimed the Bible was the sole authority on natural knowledge: <i>Meteorologia</i> by Johannes Garcaeus, <i>Atlas</i> by Gerhard Mercator, and <i>Physica Christiana</i> by Lambertus Danaeus. It is argued that the label ‘Mosaic’ should be reserved for philosophers who, like Mercator, opposed confessionalization rather than being part of it, and were genuinely interested in establishing new physical principles. Garcaeus and Danaeus used Biblical passages on nature merely to illustrate Church doctrine. Their philosophy therefore cannot be called ‘Mosaic.’</p>","PeriodicalId":49081,"journal":{"name":"Early Science and Medicine","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mining for Water? Underground Sources of Hydraulic Knowledge and Expertise in Early Modern Europe","authors":"Davide Martino","doi":"10.1163/15733823-20251319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20251319","url":null,"abstract":"<p>From Antiquity onwards, the need to keep mines dry has given rise to the development of water-raising machines. In early modern Europe a series of technological innovations, such as suction-lift pumps, were pioneered underground. Mines were an ideal site for hydraulic experimentation for four reasons: the incentive to dig deeper, the availability of capital, the presence of a skilled workforce, and the cost of labour. The new hydraulic technologies developed in mines were deployed in the water supply systems of many European cities, abbeys, and courts, as illustrated by the example of the Free Imperial City of Augsburg, the career of Pilgram Marpeck, and the Falkenstein mine. Given the significance of this technological transfer and the sheer mass of water raised out of pits, which far exceeded the mass of ore extracted, this article makes the case for the technological and environmental significance of the extraction of water from early modern mines.</p>","PeriodicalId":49081,"journal":{"name":"Early Science and Medicine","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143589845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Francisco Malta Romeiras, Luís Campos Ribeiro, Elisa Frei
{"title":"Physiognomy, Complexion, and Ingenuity: the Management of Talent in the Society of Jesus, 1540–1773","authors":"Francisco Malta Romeiras, Luís Campos Ribeiro, Elisa Frei","doi":"10.1163/15733823-20251335","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-20251335","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Jesuits’ commitment to paperwork and bureaucracy was a distinctive quality of the Society of Jesus since its foundation in 1540. By examining the catalogues produced in Portugal between 1555 and 1754, we argue that this evaluation of the bodily and spiritual qualities of individual Jesuits, especially of their temperament and ingenuity, left a profound mark in the Jesuits’ way of proceeding and that the compilation of these lists was a means to discern the skills most urgently needed for particular contexts and to make the best possible appointments across the globe. Finally, we show that Jesuit mathematicians in Lisbon taught their students how to calculate the natural complexion with astrological techniques.</p>","PeriodicalId":49081,"journal":{"name":"Early Science and Medicine","volume":"192 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143589847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}