Biblical Medicine in Renaissance Italy

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation

Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org

Andrew Berns is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a 2009-2010 Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science.

During the Renaissance, Italian scholars passionately studied the classical past. To 16th-century Italians the ancient Near East of the Bible was as alluring as ancient Greece or Rome. Physicians were especially interested in the chemical and medicinal culture of the Bible. My presentation will address the use of biblical medicine in this period and ask about the degree to which university-trained doctors believed they could find and prescribe biblical products to alleviate contemporary maladies. The talk considers the symbiosis of biblicism and medicine in Renaissance Italy and poses broad questions about the compatibility of religion and science in early modern Europe.