Academic Theories of Generation in the Renaissance: The Contemporaries and Successors of Jean Fernel (1497-1558) (History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, 22)

This volume deals with philosophically grounded theories of animal generation as found in two different traditions: one, deriving primarily from Aristotelian natural philosophy and specifically from his __Generation of Animals__; and another, deriving from two related medical traditions, the Hippocratic and the Galenic. The book contains a classification and critique of works that touch on the history of embryology and animal generation written before 1980. It also contains translations of key sections of the works on which it is focused. It looks at two different scholarly communities: the physicians (medici) and philosophers (philosophi), that share a set of textual resources and philosophical lineages, as well as a shared problem (explaining animal generation), but that nevertheless have different concerns and commitments. The book demonstrates how those working in these two traditions not only shared a common philosophical background in the arts curricula of the universities, but were in constant intercourse with each other. This book presents a test case of how scholarly communities differentiate themselves from each other through methods of argument, empirical investigation, and textual interpretations. It is all the more interesting because the two communities under investigation have so much in common and yet, in the end, are distinct in a number of important ways. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxxi Introduction (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 1-26 Front Matter ....Pages 27-27 Classical Theories of Generation in the Renaissance (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 29-31 Plato (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 33-37 Hippocrates (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 39-43 Pneuma and the Pre-Socratics (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 45-47 Aristotle (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 49-59 Galen (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 61-74 Front Matter ....Pages 75-75 The Context of Debate and the Classic Questions (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 77-101 Renaissance Commentators on “De Generatione”: Felix Accorambonius (fl. 1540–90) (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 103-110 Agostino Nifo (1470? –1538) (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 111-126 Cesare Cremonini (1550–1631) (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 127-142 The ‘Anti-commentary’ of Bernardino Telesio (1509–1588) (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 143-150 Front Matter ....Pages 151-151 The ‘Compendia Tradition’ and Jean Fernel (1497–1559) (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 153-170 Elements and Temperaments (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 171-222 Spirits and Innate Heat (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 223-250 The Soul in Generation and the Animation of the Foetus (Linda Deer Richardson, Benjamin Goldberg)....Pages 251-266 Back Matter ....Pages 267-301 This volume deals with philosophically grounded theories of animal generation as found in two different traditions: one, deriving primarily from Aristotelian natural philosophy and specifically from his Generation of Animals; and another, deriving from two related medical traditions, the Hippocratic and the Galenic. The book contains a classification and critique of works that touch on the history of embryology and animal generation written before 1980. It also contains translations of key sections of the works on which it is focused. It looks at two different scholarly communities: the physicians (medici) and philosophers (philosophi), that share a set of textual resources and philosophical lineages, as well as a shared problem (explaining animal generation), but that nevertheless have different concerns and commitments. The book demonstrates how those working in these two traditions not only shared a common philosophical background in the arts curricula of the universities, but were in constant intercourse with each other.0This book presents a test case of how scholarly communities differentiate themselves from each other through methods of argument, empirical investigation, and textual interpretations. It is all the more interesting because the two communities under investigation have so much in common and yet, in the end, are distinct in a number of important ways