Naming Pathology from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period

This collection of contributions from international scholars offers a cross-language and multi-period analysis dedicated to the constitution of the lexicon of pathology between the Middle Ages and the early modern period. By analysing unpublished texts and studying sources written in different languages (Greek, Latin, Arabic and different vernaculars), the authors demonstrate that the pathological terminology of the past did not have an unambiguous meaning and therefore, to be understood, must be historicized and evaluated according to sources and context. The volume offers the reader the possibility of observing continuity and change in the perception, representation and theoretic paradigm of the disease lexicon, in a wide range of cultural contexts.

The Names of Diseases of the Past: A Challenge for Historians (Alessandra Foscati & Michèle Goyens)

Disease Names in Latin Translations of Galen’s Works from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance: The Case of ἄνθραξ, ἕρπης, ἐρυσίπελας, and ϕαγέδαινα (Stefania Fortuna)
Scotomia: A Label in Search of an Illness (Michael McVaugh)
The Enlarged Clitoris: Naming and Defining Female Pathology in Rodrigo De Castro’s De uniuersa mulierum medicina (Cristina Santos Pinheiro)
The Medical Lexicon of Sleep Disorders (Ana Isabel Martín Ferreira & Cristina de la Rosa Cubo)
The Lexicon of an Eating Disorder in Latin Medical Texts: A Case of Renaissance Pica (Victoria Recio Muñoz)
In nostro vulgare dicuntur lo tac: The Complexity of Naming Diseases in Latin and French Texts (Alessandra Foscati)
A Pathology Related to Cold in Early Modern Southern Italy: References to the male del freddo in Hagiographic Sources (Marco Papasidero)
Gręce liquoides, Latine lupus id est strangulatio: The Names of the Diseases in the Pseudo-Galenic De Spermate (Outi Merisalo)
The Arabic-Latin Astrological Tradition of Disease Names and Descriptions (Charles Burnett)

Index of Authors and Anonymous Works
Index of Disease Names