Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/157

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MEDICINE


127


MEDICINE


famous scholastic Koger Bacon (1214-94), an English Franciscan, lays chief stress in his theory of cognition upon experience as far as the natural sciences are con- cerned, and this with even greater emphasis than Al- bertus Magnus.

Albertus Magnus (Albert Count of Bollstadt, 1193- 1280) was a Dominican. For medical science his


Lombard " — an honorary title received during his residence at the University of Paris. On account of his too liberalistic opinions and his derision of Chris- tian teaching in his "Conciliator differentiarum", his chief medical work, he was accused of being a heretic. From this period also date the "Aggregator BrLxien- sis" of Guglielmo Corvi (1250-1326). a work in even


works about animals, plants, and minerals alone con- greater demand in later times, and the " Consilia " of

cern us. Formerly a work called " De secretis muli- Gentile da Foligno (d. 1348), who, in 1341, performed

erum " was wrongly attributed to him. Albertus's most the first anatomical dissection in Padua. The fame of

eminent service to medicine was in pointing out the the school of Padua was greatly advanced by the

way to an independent observation of nature. The family of physicians, the Santa Sophia, which

following books were to a certain degree based upon about 1292 emigrated from Constantinople, and

the writings of Albertus: the encyclopedic works on whose most famous members were Marsilio (d. 1405)

natural history of the Franciscan Bartholomsus and Galeazzo (d. 1427). The latter, one of the first

Anglicus (about r260),of Thomas of Cantimpre (1204- teachers in Vienna (about 1398-1407), and later pro-

80), canon of Cambrai, of Vincejit of Beauvais (d. fessor at Padua, wrote in Vienna a pharmacopoeia


1264), the "Book of Nature" by Kunrad von Megen berg (1307-74), canon of Ratisbon, and the natural history of Meinau comjjosed towards the end of the thirteenth century at the Monastery of Meinau on the

Lake of Constance. In the medical

schools the influence of scholasti- cism made itself felt, but this in- fluence was always favourable. The scholastic physician, the philosopher at the bedside, with his compen- dious works of needy contents, with his endless game of question and answer, must not, however, be mis- judged ; he preserved interest in t he observation of nature and was, as is freely conceded, a skilful practi- tioner, although he laid excessive stress upon formalism, and medicine in his hands made no special prog- ress.

Bologna was the principal home of scholastic medicine, and, as early as the twelfth century, a medical school existetl there. The most fa- mous physician there was Thaddeus Alderotti(Th.Florentinus,1215-95), who even at that time gave practi- cal clinical instruction and enjoyed


Leopold Auenbrugger (1722-1809)


which indicates absolutely independent observation in the field of botany. His antithesis and contemporary was Giacomo dalla Torre of Forli (Jacobus Foroli- viensis, d. 1413), professor at Padua, known for his commentary on the " Ars parva" of Galen. Giacomo de Dondi (1298- 1359), author of the "Aggregator Pad nanus de medicinLs simplicibus ", tried to disengage a salt from the thermal waters of Abano, near Pa- dua. As anatomist and practitioner we must mention Bartholomaeus de Montagnana (d. 1460) ,anil thegrand- fatherof the imf ortunate Savonarola, Giovanni Michele Savonarola (1390- 1462), author of the " Practica Major ", who worked along the same lines.

MoNTPELLiER. — The earliest in- formation about the medical school of this place dates from the twelfth century. Like Salerno, Montpellier developed great independence as far as the other schools were concerned, and laid the greatest stress upon practical medicine. With the decay of Salerno, Montpellier gained in im- portance. Theclrief representative of


great fame as a physician. Among his pupils were thisschooHstheSpaniard, Arnold of Villanova(1235

the four Varignana, Dino and Tommaso di Garbo, about 1312). His greatest merit is that, incHning more

and Pietro Torrigiano KustichcUi — later a Carthu- towards the Hippocra tic school, he did not follow un-

sian monk — all w'ell-known expounders of the writ- conditionally the teachings of Galen and Avicenna, but

ings of Galen. Indirect disciples were Pietro de relied upon his own observation and experience, while

Tussignana (d. 1410), who first described the baths at employing in therapeutics a more dietetic treatmentas

Bormio, and Bavarius de Bavariis (d. about 1480), opposed to Arabian tenets. To him we are indebted for

who was for a long time physician to Pope Nicholas V. the systematic use of alcohol in certain diseases. Avery

Bologna and the Stiidi/ of A nalomy. — Bologna has doubtful merit is his popularizing of alchemy, to the

gained incomparable glory from the fact that Mon- study of which he was very much devoted. Other

dinode Liucci (about 1275-1326), the reviver of anat- Montpellier representatives of purely practical medi-

omy, taught there. There, for the first time since the cine are Bernard of Gordon (d. 1314; "Lilium me-

Alexandrian period (nearly 1,500 years), he dissected a dicinse", 1305), a Scotchman educated in Salerno;

human corpse, and wrote a treatise on anatomy based Gerardus de Solo (about 1320; " Introductorium juve-

upon personal observation — a work which, for nearly num ") ; Johannes de Tomamira (end of the fourteenth

two and a half centuries, remained the official text^ century; " Clarificatorium juvenum"); and the Por-

book of the universities. Although Mondino's work, tuguese Valescus de Taranta ("Philonium pharma-

which appeared in 1316, contains many defects and ceuticumet chirurgicum", 1418). The medical school


errors, it nevertheless marked an advance and incited men to further investigation.

Padua, the famous rival of Bologna, received a uni- versity in_1222 from Frederick II. Ju,st as the Univer- sity of Leipzig originated in consequence of the migra-


of Paris, founded in 1180, remained far behind Mont- pellier in regard to the practice of medicine.

Surgery in the Age op Scholasticism. — Surgery exhibited during this period in many respects a more independent development than practical medicine, es-


tion of students and professors from the University of pecially in Bologna. The founder of the school there

Prague in 1409, so Padua came into existence through was Hugo Borgognoni of Lucca (d. about 1258). A

a secession from Bologna. Bologna was soon sur- more important figure was his son Teodorico, chaplain,

pas.sed by the daughter institution, and, from the penitentiary, and physician-in-ordinary to Pope Inno-

foundation of the University of Vienna in 1,365 until cent IV, later Bishop of Cervia. In liis "Surgery",

the middle of the eighteenth century, Padua remained completed in 1266, he recommends the simplification

a shining model for the medical school of Bologna, of the treatment of wounds, fractures, and disloca-

Inefirstteacherof repute was Pietro d' Abano (Petrus tions. Guihelmo Saliceto from Piacenza (Guil. Pla-

Aponensis, 1250 — about 1320), known as the "great centinus), first of Bologna, then at Verona, where he