Università Roma Tre

The course aims at investigating natural histories and life sciences from 1400 to 1700. The focus will be anatomy, physiology and theories of generation (17th and 18th c.).

Selections from:
Aristotle, De Anima (On the soul, Loeb Classical Library).
Galen, De usu partium (On the usefulness of the parts of the body, 2 vols Cornell University Press).
W. Harvey, Exercitationes de generatione animalium, Engl. trans. in The Works of William Harvey, Sydenham Society 1847.
J.B. van Helmont, Ortus Medicinae, 1648

F. Bacon, selection of texts from: Cogitata et visa, The Advancement of Learning, Parasceve ad Historiam Naturalem.
R. Descartes, Treatise of Man (any edition).
Charles Webster, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine, and Reform, 1626-1660, Peter Lang.
Robert G. Frank, jr, Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists: A Study of Scientific Ideas Berkeley: University of California Press.
W. Pagel, Joan Baptista van Helmont, Cambridge University Press
C. Pinto-Correia, The ovary of Eve, Univ. of Chicago Press
C. Wilson, The invisible world, Princeton University Press