1.—Uroscopy and medieval medicine. 2.—Western urine doctrine before Theophilus. 3.—Theophilus and his De urinis. 4.—The text of Theophilus in the West. 5.—The «Chartres» and «Digby» commentaries. 6.—Theophilus in the classroom. 6.1.—The scientia and doctrina of urine: the accessus. 6.2.—Physiological context: the production of urine. 6.3.—The state of health: natural urine. 6.4.—From semiotics to diagnosis: thin, white urine. 6.5.—Theoretical re-framing of semiotics: the chromatic scale of urines. 7.—Comparison with the Digby commentary. 8.—Inventing diagnosis.

Abstract

This paper shows how the two earliest Latin expositions of Theophilus' De urinis understood diagnosis in different ways. The «Chartres» commentator sees urine as a sign of physiological process and something which is derived from a disease state. By contrast, the Digby commentator is more concerned with how uroscopy functions at the bedside as a tool that enables us to infer disease states from urine. Though they understand the role of diagnosis differently, both commentaries reflect the new intellectual context of twelfth century medicine, where physical signs cease to be mere prognostic omens, and become tools for attaining knowledge of processes otherwise inaccessible to the senses.

Roger French . Where the Philosopher Finishes, the Physician begins: Medicine and the Arts Course in Thirteenth-Century Oxford. Dynamis, 2000, 20, 75-106.

Summary

Introduction. 1.—Medicine in the Arts course. 1.1.—De sensu et sensato. 1.2.—On the Difference between the Sould and the Spirit. 1.2.1.—The Accessus. 1.2.2.—Technical terms. 1.2.2.—The Glorious Hippocrates. 1.2.4.—Heart, spirit and pulse. 1.2.5.—Brain. 2.—Hearing, reading and writing. 3.—Incorporation and teaching. 4.—The theory of teaching. 5.—Conclusion.

Abstract

In the thirteenth century the English universities were different from others, particularly those in the south of Europe, in two important ways: they taught more natural philosophy and less medicine. But the survival of students' notes from the second half of the century shows that in the formal course of lectures on natural philosophy attention was paid to medicine inside the arts course. The present discussion examines the nature of this medical material and the institutional and intellectual relationship between medicine and philosophy.

Miguel de Asúa. Peter of Spain's Handling of Authorities in his Commentary on the Isagoge of Johannitius. Dynamis, 2000, 20, 107-133.

Summary

1.—Introductory remarks. 2.—The commentary on the Isagoge of Johannitius by Peter of Spain. 3.—Peter's handling of authorities. 3.1.—Doctrina. 3.2.—The authorities mentioned in the commentary. 3.3.—Use of authorities. 3.4.—Peter´s scholastic technique. 3.5.—Some authorities. 4.—Final comments.

Abstract

The dicta from medical and philosophical authorities appearing in commentaries on the Isagoge of Johannitius may be classified according to the different roles they play in the exposition of the text. This paper establishes that the opinions of the philosophical and medico-philosophical authorities were used more frequently as the constituent elements of inferences, whereas the dicta of purely medical authorities were quoted straightforwardly as sententiae. An exception to this is Peter of Spain who does not follow any hierarchical organization of authorities; instead, he freely quotes Aristotle in opposition to the physicians as well as in support of them. These observations are explained with specific reference to Peter's ideas on the relationship between medicine and philosophy.

Fernando Salmón. Technologies of authority in the medical classroom in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Dynamis, 2000, 20, 135-157.

Summary

Introduction. 1.—A geneaology of commentators on De morbo et accidenti. 2.—The creation of contemporary networks of authority. 2.1.—The division of the text. 2.2.—The dubia. 2.3.—The authorities. 3.—A new technology of authority in the medical classroom. 4.—Conclusion.

Abstract

By 1300, university medical masters were introducing their students to a culturally distinctive reality. This reality was based on the twin pillars sustaining institutional medical knowledge: authority and a logical apparatus based on Aristotelian principles. Traditionally, attention has been paid to the relationship of the medical author with his classical authorities. This paper analyzes the strategies developed by the university medical master for establishing himself as an authority, which entailed treating his contemporaries as authorities as well. It is suggested that a tendency can be traced in the medical classroom from the 1340s onwards to turn attention away from the classical authors towards contemporary writers.

Tiziana Pesenti. The Teaching of the Tegni in Italian Universities in the Second Half of the Fourteenth Century. Dynamis, 2000, 20,159-208.

Summary

1.—The debate about the «latitudo sanitatis». 2.—«Paduani» and «Bononienses» in the commentary by Giovanni Santasofia. 3.—The commentaries by Marsilio Santasofia, Antonio da Scarperia and Cristoforo Degli Onesti. 4.—Ways and times of lecturing on the Tegni. 5.—Bodily conditions and social status in the Introductorium by Bolognino. 6.—The Tractatulus by Piero da Arezzo. 7.—Conclusion. 8.—Appendix: Introductorium ad doctrinam de corporibus secundum Bologninum.

Abstract

To challenge the opinion that in the second half of the fourteenth century there was a gap in the production of scholastic exegetical works, this paper discusses nine commentaries on the Tegni that were produced in Padua, Perugia and Bologna and transmitted mostly in the form of recollectiones by students. Their authors were Giovanni Dondi dall'Orologio, Albertino Rinaldi da Salso, Giovanni Santasofia, Antonio da Scarperia, Cristoforo Degli Onesti, Marsilio Santasofia, and the author of Vatican Lat. MS 4472. The interpretation of the Galenic latitudo sanitatis was of central importance in these commentaries and was the focal point for two brief intoductions to the first book of the Tegni, written by Bolognino and Pietro d'Arezzo. Bolognino's text is edited in an appendix to this paper.

Luis García Ballester. Galenismo y enseñanza médica en la universidad de Salamanca del siglo XV. Dynamis, 2000, 20, 209-247.

Sumario

Introducción. 1.—Métodos de aprendizaje. 2.—Hacia la reconstrucción del ambiente intelectual de la Facultad de medicina de Salamanca: discusiones y problemas en torno a una renovación del galenismo. 3.—La tardía recuperación del siglo XV. 4.—Frenos a la actividad intelectual.

Resumen

Este artículo intenta reconstruir el ambiente intelectual de la Facultad de medicina de Salamanca, los problemas médicos que preocuparon a sus miembros y las discusiones en su torno. La reconstrucción, centrada en el siglo XV, se basa en los nuevos datos aportados por material manuscrito y de la primera imprenta salmantina.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reconstruct the intellectual atmosphere of the fifteenth-century Faculty of Medicine at Salamanca and the medical problems with which academic people there were concerned. This reconstruction is based on new evidence from manuscript material and from medical books of early Salamanca printing.

Cornelius O'Boyle. Gesturing in the Early Universities. Dynamis, 2000, 20, 249-281.

Summary

1.—Towards a theory of gestures. 2.—The medieval theory of gestures. 3.—The origins of formal gesticulations. 4.—Classroom gestures.

Abstract

Research into the oral and literary traditions of scholastic education usually emphasizes the significance of the word in late medieval pedagogy. This paper suggests that coded hand signals provided early university scholars with an important non-verbal means of communication too. Using illustrations of classroom scenes from early university manuscripts, this paper analyzes the artistic conventions for representing gestures that these images embody. By building up a typology of these gesticulations, it demonstrates that the producers of these images and their audience shared a perception of scholastic education that embraced a sophisticated understanding of the activities associated with university education.

Michael Mc Vaugh. Surgical Education in the Middle Ages. Dynamis, 2000, 20, 283-304.

Summary

1.—Surgery becomes text-based. 2.—Inserting surgery into medical faculties, c. 1300. 3.—The second-class status of academic surgery in the later Middle Ages. 4.—Techniques of university surgical instruction.

Abstract

The new surgical texts of the thirteenth century suggest that their authors wished their subject to appear as a learned discipline, yet it was still communicated by individual practitioners privately to one or two disciples, not in a university setting. But by 1300, surgery was beginning to be taught formally as part of medicine in many Italian studia, for example, by Dino del Garbo at Siena, though Henri de Mondeville´s programme to accomplish the same at Paris (1306-16) was unsuccessful. Surgery continued to be taught in Italian schools in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, though it was of much lower status than medicine, as it revealed at Bologna and Padua; during the same period, surgeons in Paris eventually achieved a limited association with the faculty of medicine there. Dissections and models were perhaps used in university teaching of surgery, which nevertheless appears to have been primarily text-based.

Iona McCleery. Opportunities for Teaching and Studying Medicine in Medieval Portugal before the Foundation of the University of Lisbon (1290). Dynamis, 2000, 20, 305-320.

Abstract

This paper discusses where Portuguese physicians studied medicine. The careers of two thirteenth-century physicians, Petrus Hispanus and Giles of Santarém, indicate that the Portuguese travelled abroad to study in Montpellier or Paris. But it is also possible that there were opportunities for study in Portugal itself. Particularly significant in this respect is the tradition of medical teaching associated with the Augustinian house of Santa Cruz in Coimbra and the reference to medical texts found in Coimbra archives. From these sources it can be shown that there was a suitable environment for medical study in medieval Portugal, encouraging able students to further their medical interests elsewhere.

Monica Green. Books as a Source of Medical Education for Women in the Middle Ages. Dynamis, 2000, 20, 331-369.

Summary

1.—Professional female practitioners and their books. 2.—Religious women and their books. 3.—Conclusions and speculations: the role of gender.

Abstract

The development of philosophical medicine in the high and late Middle Ages brought with it a powerful association of medical knowledge with the written word. To possess books, or at least to have access to books, was both a prerequisite for and a symbol of the kind of theoretical learning that distinguished the learned practitioner from the empiric. This study examines evidence for women's access to medical books, raising the question of what difference gender made. I argue that, for the most part, women did not own medical books, whether they were laywomen or religious. I suggest that this was largely due to the limits on advanced education for women, a factor that would have effected both laywomen and nuns.

Montserrat Cabré. From a Master to a Laywoman: A Feminine Manual of Self-Help. Dynamis, 2000, 20, 371-393.

Summary

Introduction. 1.—Master Joan's Tròtula: the history of a text. 2. —«Women are in want of it»: The meanings of a text. 3. —Conclusion.

Abstract

This article analyzes Master Joan's Tròtula, a late fourteenth-century Catalan text on women's health addressed to an infanta of Aragon which survives in one late fourteenth-century manuscript. It presents a hypothesis regarding its genre, its composition and use at the Catalan-Aragonese Court, and its later fortuna. It considers how Master Joan inscribed in the text a conception of women's medical needs, while also defining lay women's involvement in maintaining their health.