Court doctors in Modern Europe: Cesare Macchiati (1629-1675) a doctor travelling with Queen Christina of Sweden (2024)
Fabiola Zurlini (Author)
Iorio, Silvia (Author)
Vera Nigrisoli Wärnhjelm (Author)
Medicina Historica
Volume: 8
Issue: 1
Pages: 1-7
Background and Aim: Court doctors have long been a neglected topic for medical historians as they often represent minor figures with a little editorial production at a scientific level, more relevant for the political and diplomatic role played at court rather than for their medical one. Only recently, medical historians have understood their importance, starting to investigate the relationship between court medicine and the medical context of the society of the time. Among these still little-known figures, to whom historiography is paying attention, there is Cesare Macchiati (1629-1675), a doctor at the Roman court of Queen Christina of Sweden from 1659 to 1675. Materials and Methods: As a court doctor, Macchiati joined the Queen on two journeys to Northern Europe, towards Sweden, respectively between 1660 and 1668, leaving about fifty letters, addressed to Cardinal Decio Azzolino Jr, as a documentation of these journeys. Results: From the study of these letters, it is possible to deduce some biographical information on court medical practice, the queen’s temperament and illnesses and the circulation of a new medical knowledge at the court, which was favoured by the journey. Conclusions: The biography highlights how the role of a court doctor, which was consolidated by the experience of the journey to Europe in Macchiati's case, becomes a prerequisite for a professional rise on his return to Rome in the most important city medical institutions, such as the university, the Roman medical college at the pontifical curia, characterized by a cosmopolitan context thanks to the international professional background, developed at the Queen’s court.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Chapter
Nance, Brian K.;
(2011)
The Arena and the Study: Medical Practice in Turquet de Mayerne's Treatment of Robert Cecil's Final Illness
Book
Trevor-Roper, H. R.;
(2006)
Europe's Physician: The Various Life of Sir Theodore de Mayerne
Book
Ludovico Pacino Viti;
Benedino Gemelli;
(2022)
I consulti di Ludovico Pacino Viti (1662-1732) e di altri medici del suo tempo
Chapter
Maria Conforti;
(2021)
Fiducia per lettera: medici e pazienti nei consulti italiani tra tardo Seicento e primo Settecento
Book
Ruisinger, Marion Maria;
(2008)
Patientenwege. Die Konsiliarkorrespondenz Lorenz Heisters (1683--1758) in der Trew-Sammlung Erlangen
Article
Emanuele Armocida;
Nicolò Nicoli Aldini;
Gianfranco Natale;
(2024)
Cesare Magati (1579-1647) and Flaminio Rota (1555-1611): Medical diatribes in the early 17th century
Article
Ad Meskens;
(2021)
Astrology and the Archduke: Two unpublished letters by Tycho Brahe on the horoscope of Albert VII of Austria
Article
Eamon, William;
(2005)
The Charlatan's Trial: An Italian Surgeon in the Court of King Philip II, 1576--1577
Article
Elina Sopo;
(2019)
The Pugs and the Elephant: Dr Botkin and the Professional and National Identity of Physicians in the Russian Court
Article
Bates, Ann;
Bates, A. W.;
(2007)
Lãn Ông (Lê Hu'u Trác, 1720--91) and the Vietnamese Medical Tradition
Chapter
Purš, Ivo;
Smolka, Josef;
(2011)
Martin Ruland starší a mladší a prostedí císaských lékaú
Article
Tuten, James H.;
(2011)
“A Remarkable Case”: A Surgeon's Letter to the Huntington County Globe
Article
Dominique Couzinet;
(2017)
Note sur les consilia juridiques et les consilia médicaux au XVIe siècle
Book
Philipp Teichfischer;
(2014)
Johann Lukas Schönlein (1793–1864): Unveröffentlichte Briefe: Zum 150. Todestag
Article
Silvana D'Alessio;
(2021)
Medicina e storia naturale nella Napoli del Settecento
Article
Brookes, Barbara;
(2008)
A Corresponding Community: Dr. Agnes Bennett and Her Friends from the Edinburgh Medical College for Women of the 1890s
Thesis
Wild, Wayne;
(2001)
Medicine-by-post in eighteenth-century Britain: The changing rhetoric of illness in doctor-patient correspondence and literature
Chapter
Benedino Gemelli;
(2024)
Saggezza medica e prudenza terapeutica nella medicina epistolare e nella trattatistica medica di inizio Settecento
Article
Mark Häberlein;
Tilmann Walter;
(2022)
Sigismund Schnitzer (ca. 1560/65–1622): Ärztliche Praxis, Heilkunst und Naturaneignung in einer süddeutschen Bischofsstadt
Book
Weston, Robert;
(2013)
Medical Consulting by Letter in France, 1665--1789
Be the first to comment!