Article ID: CBB001202413

Long Life, Natural Death: The Learned Ideal of Dying in Late Medieval Commentaries on Avicenna's Canon (2014)

unapi

Within late medieval learned medicine, natural death functioned both as a theoretical concept and as a goal for practice. Late medieval commentaries on Avicenna's Canon are used as source material in this study, in order to investigate the ways in which these learned medical authors envisaged natural death. The findings are compared to descriptions of natural death by natural philosophers, and to ideals of dying in broader medieval culture. According to the physicians, natural death was caused by the extinction of innate heat, due to a lack of innate moisture. They discussed natural death in relation to regimen, as the right regimen protected the body's heat and moisture, and thus helped a patient to keep natural death aloof. So, in order to think about natural death, the physicians turned to the whole of life, during which heat dried out moisture and regimens ought to be followed. By contrast, natural philosophers tended to focus on the moment of death itself. The comparison of natural death with the Good Death in broad medieval culture highlights the amoral nature of the natural death.

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Authors & Contributors
Cova, Paolo
Jaboulet-Vercherre, Azelina
Zuccolin, Gabriella
Ziegler, Joseph
Stolberg, Michael
Pormann, Peter E.
Concepts
Medicine
Natural philosophy
Death
Physicians; doctors
Philosophy of medicine
Philosophy
Time Periods
Medieval
13th century
Early modern
Renaissance
14th century
20th century, late
Places
Italy
Europe
France
Bologna (Italy)
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