Article ID: CBB349622990

Pharmacy, Testing, and the Language of Truth in Renaissance Italy (2017)

unapi

This article examines the role of testing and innovation in sixteenthcentury Italian pharmacy. I argue that apothecaries were less concerned with testing drugs for efficacy or creating novel products than with reactivating an older Mediterranean pharmacological tradition and studying the materials on which it relied. Their practice was not driven by radical experimentation but by a "culture of tweaking"—of minute operational changes to existing recipes and accommodation of their textual variants—which was rooted in the guild economy fostering incremental over radical innovation and in a humanist reevaluation of past autorities. Workshop practice was also increasingly driven by a new ideal of staying true to nature fostered by the period's botanical renaissance. This led to an emphasis on ingredients over processes in the shop, and found clearest expression in the elaboration of a taxonomic "language of truth" that helped apothecaries discern between authentic and inauthentic materia medica and harness their sincerity in lieu of testing effectiveness.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB349622990/

Similar Citations

Article Enrico Cevolani; Giulia Buscaroli; (2018)
Dispute sulla teriaca tra gli speziali e Ulisse Aldrovandi nella Bologna del XVI secolo (/isis/citation/CBB053286895/)

Chapter Valentina Pugliano; (2018)
Natural History in the Apothecary’s Shop (/isis/citation/CBB753266245/)

Article Marina Macchio; (2017)
Il memoriale e le lettere del Cavaliere Niccolò Venerosi Pesciolini (/isis/citation/CBB503416355/)

Article Rodríguez-Guerrero, José; (2008-2009)
La Primera Gran Red Comercial de un Medicamento chymico: Vittorio Algarotti y su Quintaesencia del Oro Medicinal (/isis/citation/CBB001021307/)

Article Federica Rotelli; (2018)
Exotic Plants in Italian Pharmacopoeia (16th -17th Centuries) (/isis/citation/CBB930409086/)

Article Carmen Caccioppoli; Gennaro Rispoli; (2018)
Nell'antica spezieria degli Incurabili: dall'alchimia alla chimica nel segno dei secreta (/isis/citation/CBB650805690/)

Article Ernesto Riva; Carla Camana; (2018)
Radiografia della teriaca (/isis/citation/CBB982733896/)

Article Giorgio du Ban; (2022)
Archeospezierie in Etruria (/isis/citation/CBB459976303/)

Article Paschal, Ashley; McNabney, Justin; Hanson, Bryan; (2005)
The Prescribing Habits and Materia Medica of Dr. William D. Hutchings (/isis/citation/CBB000600487/)

Book Giovanni Pietro Orelli Barnaba; Benedino Gemelli; (2018)
Giovanni Pietro Orelli Barnaba di Locarno, Opera Medica (1711) (/isis/citation/CBB373446763/)

Article Carlo Luigi Bagliani; (2017)
Il "Libro delle visite" (/isis/citation/CBB161757034/)

Article Ferdinando Marinelli; (2016)
Le spezierie toscane e la maiolica (/isis/citation/CBB914263359/)

Authors & Contributors
Macchio, Marina
Caccioppoli, Carmen
Buscaroli, Giulia
Rispoli, Gennaro
Vannucci, Laura
Marinelli, Ferdinando
Journals
Atti e Memorie, Rivista di Storia della Farmacia
Pharmacy in History
Nuncius: Annali di Storia della Scienza
Medicina nei Secoli - Arte e Scienza
Bruniana & Campanelliana: Ricerche Filosofiche e Materiali Storico-testuali
Azogue: Revista Electrónica Dedicada al Estudio Histórico-Crítico de la Alquimia
Publishers
Mimesis
Duke University
Cambridge University Press
Concepts
Pharmacy
Apothecaries
Medicine
Therapeutics
Physicians; doctors
Therapeutic practice; therapy; treatment
People
Ramazzini, Bernardino
Hutchings, William D.
Galen
Algarotti, Vittorio
Aldrovandi, Ulisse
Time Periods
17th century
16th century
Renaissance
18th century
19th century
Early modern
Places
Italy
Florence (Italy)
Tuscany (Italy)
Bologna (Italy)
Padua (Italy)
Naples (Italy)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment