Introduction Girolamo Fracastoro is one of the most recognizable names in Italy, he doesn't get the recognition he deserves world wide. He has impacted lives of many people and inspired many young scientists and writers. Girolamo Fracastoro has helped shape modern science and medicine. He has been traditionally considered as a symbolic figure in the history of medicine. Girolamo Fracastoro have greatly influenced many young aspiring scientists.
Early Life
Girolamo Fracastoro was born in 1478 in Verona. His grandfather was a physician of the Scala family. Girolamo’s parents had seven sons, he was the sixth child. His mother, Camilla Mascarelli, died when he was still a child. He was mostly brought up by his father, Paolo Filippo Fracastoro,
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It is a story about a shepherd boy named Syphilus, who was punished by God with the horrible disease for insulting Apollo. The first book then goes on to describe the disease and what happens when someone is infected. In the second book, he talks about its cure and how to prevent it, and in the third book, he talks about Columbus’s voyage and the discovery of the guaiacum, a medicine against syphilis. ‘De Contagione et Contagiosis Morbis’, published in 1546, is another one of his major works. Here, he suggests that epidemics are caused by tiny particles or "spores" that are able of transmitting diseases both through direct and indirect contacts as well as without contact over long distance. In approximately 1505, Fracastoro graduated with a degree in medicine. He returned to Verona in 1509. Following the publication of Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus, Fracastoro also published Homocentrica, which was about the movement of the stars (1538), De sympathia et antipathia rerum liber unus, which was a book on sympathy and antipathy of things, and De contagione et contagiosis morbis libri III (1546), which was about infection, the transmission of diseases and their cures. In Homocentrica sive de stellis he describes the movements of the celestial spheres, the seasons, and the various types of day (solar and sidereal) and recalls the old theory of Eudoxus, which was replaced by the Ptolemaic
Crosby, in his chapter regarding syphilis, addresses the controversy surrounding its origins. One theory that Crosby seems to point out is the notion that syphilis may have existed in pre-Columbian Europe. A piece of evidence that Crosby makes mention of is how “neither syphilis nor anything resembling it is mentioned at all in the documentation of the Columbian voyages written prior to the first epidemic of the pox in Europe.” (Crosby 137) This would seem to suggest that the disease had a somewhat presence in Europe, but Crosby refutes the claim, asserting that undocumented information is not a good enough reason to support this theory. One major theory that Crosby describes is the Unitarian theory, or the theory that syphilis evolved over time. The argumentation for this theory is heavily present in Crosby’s book, as he notes how the disease evolved and spread through the armies of Charles VII of France. Because syphilis is a highly transitive disease through sexual intercourse, the fact that many of Charles’s soldiers, following many battles, “engaged in the usual practice of rape and sack” around the mid-1490s, suggests this type of transformation of the disease. (Crosby
"Plague." Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students. Ed. Paul F. Grendler. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. 172-174. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
“The Decameron Stories” written by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio between years 1348-1351 take place in the period of plague epidemic which devastated Europe. He narrates how plague was suffered in Firenze and reactions of people against collective deaths as a close observer at introduction of the book to his readers. Aldo S .Bernardo states “ In short, the plaque in the “Decameron” resembles the voice of Augustine in Petrarch’s “ Secretum” reminding his protégé not only of the fragility of human condition but of the fearfulness of the final moment of life and of the evanescent nature of human love.’’
Disease may primarily be a health deteriorating agents but it will also bring social change. In The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio elaborates on the social changes and extraordinary behavior of the people in the City of Florence during the 14th century A.D. Similarly Thucydides tells of his personal experience with the plague in Athens during the 5th century B.C. in "The Plague"; History of the Peloponnesian War. He focuses on the effects it had on peoples behaviors and religious beliefs. By comparing Boccaccio and Thucydides work, one is able to understand the perspective each one has on the links between the spread of the disease and social change, while Boccaccio focuses on the people whose behavior caused them to abandon others to death and this exemplifying a lack of morality, Thucydides is more concerned with the change in religious beliefs caused by the plague.
Born in 1469 to an economically limited family under the parents of Bernardo di Niccolò di Buoninsegna and Bartolomea de’Nelli, Niccolò de Bernardo Machiavelli was exposed to numerous books covering law and Classical texts in his youth, which he consequently learned to reject even before entering in Florentine politics.2 A self-taught intellectual like his father Bernardo, Machiavelli began studies in Latin at age seven. Although he was well-learned in the language by his young adulthood, he quickly refused to write his treatises ...
Born in 1474, the eldest child of the Duke Ercole I and his Duchess Leonora of Aragon. All of Ferrara rejoi...
Works Cited Camus, Albert. A. The Plague. Trans. Stuart Gilbert.
18). The source then goes into detail of the events of the besiege of Caffa. Relations between Italian Merchants and Moghuls became uneasy leading to the siege. De Mussis writes how the Christians in the city were trapped for 3 years. During this time the Tartars (the besiegers) started to become ill with the plague and that thousands at a time would die. The Tartars then decided use “biological warfare” and catapult the diseased corpses into the city. Causing the Christians to flee on ship to Genoa. de’ Mussis goes into detail of how the plague spread from Genoa, blaming what happened in countries like Sicily and all of Italy. “Speak, Genoa, of what you have done. Describe, Sicily and Isole Pelagie, the judgements of God. Recount, Venice, Tuscany and the whole of Italy, what you have done” (Horrox, de’ Mussis pg. 19). He continues to go into more depth of how people were becoming infected. Gabriele de’ Mussis’s passage ends with him writing on how it was a time of suffering and that it came from God’s hand, and continues into some symptoms of the plague and accounts of how some patients with the plague had been cured do to a ointment and cutting of the boils that grew on their
Chaos struck all-over Europe in the 14th century; no social class or individual was immune from this bizarre mysterious death. Historians estimated that this unidentifiable disease killed a total of one-third of Europe’s population by the 1350’s. Now in today’s society scientists classify the unidentifiable disease as the bubonic plague also referred to as the Black Death. During 14th century European-society, there was no logical medical knowledge; instead, people resorted to supplementary explanations, such as God punishing the sinners, or other religious groups outside of Christianity misbehaving (Black Death 1). In this time period, oral tradition was still common among the illiterate, luckily for the upper class society several people were literate and documented the event of the Black Death by letters, poems, or even stories. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio is a fictional medieval allegory story within its frame narrative has 100 tales that documented life in Italy occurring the same years as the bubonic plague. In the text the Decameron, author Boccaccio, depicts a story about ten wealthy Italians fleeing to the countryside after news of this mysterious deadly disease. Through interpretations of the story, Boccaccio gives insight about the Black Death’s affects, believed causations of the time, moral and religion standard, and response of the people in Florence Italy. In addition, found from examining the texts, information not related to the Black Death such as insight about the affects the Decameron had on society, Boccaccio’s reason for creating the story, and the intended audience. (Boccaccio).
Pico della Mirandola was an Italian Philosopher and a humanist. A lot of people would consider Pico della Mirandola an ideal man of the Italian Renaissance. Pico really helped the Renaissance, he made a huge impact on a lot of other philosophers, and a lot of other philosophers influenced him. Pico della Mirandola once stated,“Whatever seeds each man cultivates will grow to maturity and bear in him their own fruit. If they be vegetative, he will be like a plant.”(BrainyQuote). Pico della Mirandola was the biggest influence on Renaissance philosophy because of his book, Oration on the Dignity of Man, his 900 theses, and his religious impact.
Admittedly, before reading this book, I had never heard of childbed fever or Semmelweis. With today’s advances in medicine, there was never a need to know. Nevertheless, by taking the steps to publish the story of the life of Semmelweis’ and his important findings, Nuland broke new ground. Nuland was the first to put two and two together to inform the medical and historical fields of this great mans discovery. By writing the Doctors’ Plague, Nuland finally can give Semmelweis the recognition he so thouroughly deserves.
Similarly, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who lived from 1463-1494, was a key figure in expanding the Italian Renaissance. One of his most famous works, Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico della Mirandola praises men and the fact that humans have free will to choose their destiny, the opposite of predestination. He also addresses man’s direct relationship to divinity and the limitless possibilities God has bestowed upon
Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro, born in Trujillo, Estremadura, Spain, in 1471. He was the son of Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisca Gonzalez, Francisco did not know how to read or write. He had little education throughout his life. His father was a captain of infantry and had fought in many battles. Pizarro always wanted to explore and sail.
Leonardo Da Vinci is a famed artist today due to his renowned painting of the ‘Mona Lisa’. In the 14th century, people of Venice would have known him as an engineer, people of Milan would have known him for his Last Supper, but only the people of Florence would have seen his whole character. Da Vinci is known as the archetypal Renaissance man, a man of “unquenchable curiosity” and “feverishly inventive imagination”. Da Vinci created many technologies and new innovations which were so advanced for his time and age that many scholars did not believe him. He contributed to civilisation through three main areas: art, science and engineering.
Galileo was probably the greatest astronomer, mathematician and scientist of his time. In fact his work has been very important in many scientific advances even to this day.