Part 24 (2/2)
Clement VIII (1592).--Jerome Provenzalis, ”a philosopher of distinction, most expert physician, theologian of great name and yet a practical genius of the highest ability who had scarcely his equal in his generation in Italy” (Mandosius), was the medical attendant of Pope Clement VIII. One of his books, a treatise on the senses (Rome, 1597), attracted wide attention in his time and still has a place in the bibliography of the sensations.
Another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII was Jerome Rubeus, who wrote books on history as well as medicine. He is well known as the author of a history of Ravenna and its neighborhood and people which contains an account of the Goths, the Lombards and the Italians of the earlier Middle Ages from the materials then at hand. He is best known in medicine for his ”Annotations on Cornelius Celsus' De Re Medica.”
He wrote a treatise on Destination and a monograph on The Dietetic Value of Melons. His book on Destination appeared in editions at Venice, at Basel, at Ravenna and probably also at Rome. Rubeus has a place in most of the histories written at this time.
Another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII was Jerome Cordella.
While he is highly praised for his knowledge of philosophy and his skill in medicine he is better known for his intimate friends.h.i.+p with St. Philip Neri, of whom Cardinal Newman, in the nineteenth century, was so proud to proclaim himself the spiritual son. Jerome was of a.s.sistance to St. Philip particularly in the magnificent social work which meant so much for the correction of social abuses at this time and, above all, the occupation of youthful minds with higher thoughts.
Among Zecchius' books, who was another of the physicians to Pope Clement VIII, is one on ”The Means of Curing Especially Such Fevers as Arise from Putrid Humors.” Another is called ”Medical Consultations or The Whole Practice of Medicine Briefly Treated,” a third is on ”The Use of Italian Waters,” and then besides there are a series of shorter papers on Hippocrates' Aphorisms, on Digestion, on Purgation, on The Letting of Blood, on Critical Days and on the Morbus Gallicus.
Caesalpinus the Botanist.--Caesalpinus is mentioned in the {458} text of the previous edition of this work as a professor at the Papal Medical School, the Sapienza, and physician to Pope Clement VIII. In the history of science, however, he should rather be counted among the botanists than the physicians, though there is no doubt that he was the first fully to describe the systemic circulation. Edward Lee Greene, in his Landmarks of Botanical History, which is ”A Study of Certain Epochs in the Development of the Science of Botany” (part of volume 54 of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1909), mentions that ”The Caesalpinus system of plant arrangement seemed incomparably superior to every one that had preceded it.”
Linnaeus in the warmth of zeal for the great Caesalpino had p.r.o.nounced him ”first in the order of time among real systematists.” Caesalpinus is then one of the great founders of modern botany and his work _De Plantis_ is a foundation stone of the science. Gurlt talks of him as the greatest botanist of his century and his work as director of the botanical garden of Pisa did much both for medicine and botany. A little practical work of his was a Manual of the Practice of Medicine, which attracted much attention and is in line with the efforts of Papal Physicians as a rule to make knowledge available for the use of physicians generally.
Still another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII was Michael Mercatus, an intimate personal friend of the well-known social reformer St. Philip Neri, whose profound influence on the social life of Rome is a matter of history and to whom such men as Newman and Faber and the English Oratorians turned with the loving name of Father in the nineteenth century. Mercatus wrote a series of instructions on the Pest and his medical volume contains also articles on antidotes against poisons, the gout and paralysis. Like many of the physicians of his century he was interested in Oriental problems and wrote a volume on the obelisks of Rome which was published in 1589 and dedicated to Pope Sixtus V. This led to a controversy with Latino Latini during which Mercatus published another volume on the obelisks.
Mercatus came of a well-known scholarly family, for his grandfather had been a close friend of Marsilio Ficino and a member of the famous Platonic Academy.
Another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII, at least he received the honor of the appointment as Papal Physician, though he could not come to Rome to fulfil its duties because of the approach of age, was Nicholas Masinus. He is well known for his work on ”The Abuse of Cold Drinks,” which was published in {459} 1587. The custom of gathering snow on the mountains and using it in their wine and other drinks during the summer time, which had been practised by the ancient Romans, was revived at the time of the Renaissance and Masinus was sure that it was productive of harm to the digestive system.
Still another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII who deserves mention was Jacobus Bonaventura, to whom Athenius of Brussels dedicated his edition of the ”Medical Consultations of Jerome Mercurialis,” calling him ”a very distinguished man.” He was a particular friend of Mercurialis, who expressed his opinion of him in the highest terms. He made a great many friends among the n.o.bility of Italy and was very dear to the Sovereign Pontiff.
Still another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII was Julius De Angelis, who came of a well-known academic family with many members distinguished in law and medicine. He was professor at Padua for years and afterwards at the Sapienza in Rome and was chosen by the Pope to give special lessons for the benefit of physicians and medical attendants at the Santo Spirito Hospital in Saxia as it was called. He is mentioned in a number of medical works of the time, and in the book of the Statutes of the College of Physicians of the City of Rome.
Paul V (1605-21).--One of the physicians of Pope Paul V, though at first he had refused the honor because it is said that as an astrologer he had found the stars unfavorable to his acceptance of it, was Pompeius Caimus, from whom we have a number of medical writings.
Van der Linden, in _De Scriptis Medicis_, and others furnish the list of them. He wrote ”On Congenital Heat,” on ”The Indications of Putrid Fevers,” on ”The Recognition and Cure of Melancholia,” on ”The Nature of Science and Its Acquisition,” ”On Grief,” a ”Treatise on Human Longevity and the Climacteric Years,” as well as ”Dissertations on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna,” which had been delivered as lectures at Padua, on ”The Nature and Differences of Winds,” and on ”The Early Recognition and the Lengthening of Old Age,”
besides translating and annotating a number of the works of the old Greek philosophers and physicians in Latin. It may seem strange that a man of such wide erudition and scholars.h.i.+p should still cling to the delusion of astrology, but about this same time Galileo and Kepler were drawing up horoscopes, and in the middle of the eighteenth century Mesmer's astrological essay was accepted for the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the University of Vienna. Caimus, after refusing the chair of {460} medicine at the University of Pisa, to which a magnificent salary was attached, became the physician to Pope Gregory XV.
Gregory XV (1621-23).--Vincentius Crucius was another of the physicians of Pope Gregory XV. He had been a professor at Bologna and we have from him his lectures at Bologna on ”Epilepsy or The Comitial Disease,” published at Venice in 1603. Books of his ”On Catarrh,”
published at Ravenna, on ”The More Frequent Diseases of The Head; Catarrh, Phrenitis, Lethargy and Epilepsy,” published at Rome, 1617, and ”The More Frequent Diseases of the Chest; Phthisis, Haemoptysis, Asthma, Peri-pneumonia, and Pluritis,” issued also at Rome, a volume on ”The Diseases of The Stomach” and a series of volumes of Consultations on Medicine, were well known to his contemporaries and to succeeding generations. He wrote besides a commentary on Lucretius, another on Hippocrates, a book on Prophylaxis, a volume on Vesuvius and a popular work in Italian, all his other works having been in Latin, meant to be of a.s.sistance to ordinary people in avoiding disease and especially the infectious diseases.
Two of the Papal Physicians of Gregory XV are the brothers Giovanni and Bernardino Castellani. John is the better known and was for years the director of the Hospital of Santo Spirito and received the much coveted t.i.tle of Roman Citizen for his work for Roman citizens there.
He succeeded Elpidiano as lecturer on anatomy and surgery at the University of the Sapienza and left a large anatomical work in ma.n.u.script with many copper plate engravings, which were never published. The book of his by which he is known is a volume of directions for venesection from the standpoint of the anatomist. It was the custom then for nearly everyone to have himself let blood several times a year and especially in the spring, somewhat as in our time many people take purgatives. The practices are about equally foolish unless there is some special indication for them. In many families the barber-surgeon was called in almost as regularly for this and with quite as little anxiety about it as for the cutting of the hair. Naturally there had been many mishaps in this practice because the barbers were expert enough but ignorant, and venesection was done from blood vessels all over the body because one patient thought his head ought to be relieved, another his foot, another his chest, and the like. Castellani's book then, called _Phylacterium_, which I suppose might be translated The Protective, was meant to indicate the anatomical landmarks that should guide the barber-surgeon so as to avoid the danger points. Like so many other of the works of the {461} Papal Physicians it was directed to the correction of popular practices that were the source of injury and suffering to the people.
Castellani's book contained directions for the application of cups, dry and wet, which was also a popular practice confided to the barber-surgeons at this time, and like blood-letting had been subject to many abuses.
Urban VIII (1623-44).--One of the scholarly Papal Physicians was Julius Mancinus of Siena, who secured the much coveted position of physician to the Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome by compet.i.tion. He obtained a great reputation for his ability to make the prognosis of disease and acquired an extensive practice as a consequence. He acc.u.mulated a great fortune from his practice but lived very modestly and used his income partly for the education of ambitious youths of talent who were without the means of securing an education and partly in the collection of works of art. He wrote a book on ”The Pictures of Rome.” A number of books were dedicated to him, and Antonio Recchi in his scientific work expresses his grat.i.tude to him for the help afforded in the collection of plants, animals, and minerals from Mexico.
Two of the Papal Physicians of Pope Urban VIII were the uncle and nephew Sylvester and Thaddeus Collicola. Sylvester taught medicine at the Sapienza and was a very popular teacher mentioned in a number of books of the time. Thaddeus had studied law before taking up medicine, but devoted himself entirely to the second profession and Mandosius speaks of him as ”the greatest physician of his time, dear to all the learned men who knew him and to all the good men who were brought in contact with him.” Thaddeus was evidently a friend of the literary men of his time, for he is often mentioned by poets and writers. Several books were dedicated to him by scientific and literary admirers.
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