{"id":{"repo_id":"cambridge","oai_identifier":"oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/393059"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cambridge/oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/393059","repository":{"repo_id":"cambridge","name":"Cambridge University","base_url":"https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Ten Centuries of Celsus’s De Medicina: Practical Histories of Medical Humanism","abstract":"This dissertation explores singular cases of reception of Cornelius Celsus’s De medicina between the tenth and the nineteenth century to revise accepted definitions of medical humanism and show how ancient texts spurred the development of medicine at intellectual and practical levels across ten centuries. While considered virtually unknown in the Middle Ages, Celsus’s first-century CE medical textbook has been marginally addressed in the history of Renaissance medicine for its sophisticated Latin style, which provided humanists a rich repository of technical vocabulary to produce new translations of ancient Greek texts. Studying manuscript and printed sources in English, French, Italian, and Latin, my dissertation uses the reception of De medicina to question the binomial pairs learned-vernacular and intellectual-practical knowledge in the history of medieval and early modern medicine. In the dissertation, I provide a case study of a tenth-century antipope who used Celsus’s work to orient his understanding of medicine, while crafting an eclectic miscellany that merges ancient Greek learning to hands-on instructions to prepare plasters and use cauteries. I then focus on the Renaissance vernacular translations of De medicina to argue for a more dynamic circulation of ancient medical works, which have been considered as pertaining only to university physicians and élite Latinate readers. In chapter 3, I explore how early modern surgeons developed techniques and technologies by bringing together the words of ancient authors like Celsus and the tools of the artisans, thus bridging the scholarship of medical humanism and the mechanical arts. Finally, I explore the concurrent development of early nineteenth-century anatomy and philology in Leonardo Targa’s editorial work on De medicina, showing that a focus on his practices of dissection of texts and bodies reveals symmetrical forms of thinking in the premodern sciences and humanities.","abstract_html":"This dissertation explores singular cases of reception of Cornelius Celsus’s De medicina between the tenth and the nineteenth century to revise accepted definitions of medical humanism and show how ancient texts spurred the development of medicine at intellectual and practical levels across ten centuries. While considered virtually unknown in the Middle Ages, Celsus’s first-century CE medical textbook has been marginally addressed in the history of Renaissance medicine for its sophisticated Latin style, which provided humanists a rich repository of technical vocabulary to produce new translations of ancient Greek texts. Studying manuscript and printed sources in English, French, Italian, and Latin, my dissertation uses the reception of De medicina to question the binomial pairs learned-vernacular and intellectual-practical knowledge in the history of medieval and early modern medicine. In the dissertation, I provide a case study of a tenth-century antipope who used Celsus’s work to orient his understanding of medicine, while crafting an eclectic miscellany that merges ancient Greek learning to hands-on instructions to prepare plasters and use cauteries. I then focus on the Renaissance vernacular translations of De medicina to argue for a more dynamic circulation of ancient medical works, which have been considered as pertaining only to university physicians and élite Latinate readers. In chapter 3, I explore how early modern surgeons developed techniques and technologies by bringing together the words of ancient authors like Celsus and the tools of the artisans, thus bridging the scholarship of medical humanism and the mechanical arts. Finally, I explore the concurrent development of early nineteenth-century anatomy and philology in Leonardo Targa’s editorial work on De medicina, showing that a focus on his practices of dissection of texts and bodies reveals symmetrical forms of thinking in the premodern sciences and humanities.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Marchiori, Silvia Maria"],"institution":"University of Cambridge","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Margócsy, Dániel"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-06-30","date_published":"2025-06-30","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:03Z","subjects":["History of medicine","History of scholarship","Book history","Medieval and early modern Europe","Classical reception"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/c1e09707-5380-4059-ab8a-be9e0fb45d17/download","http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:creator.authoridentifier","label":"Author Identifier","values":["000900005132138X"],"render_values":[{"text":"0009-0000-5132-138X","href":"https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5132-138X","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.123538","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.doi"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Margócsy, Dániel"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Marchiori, Silvia Maria"]},{"key":"dc:creator.authoridentifier","label":"Author Identifier","values":["000900005132138X"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2025-06-30"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cambridge"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby.uri","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby URI","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/393059"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["History of medicine","History of scholarship","Book history","Medieval and early modern Europe","Classical reception"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/c1e09707-5380-4059-ab8a-be9e0fb45d17/download","http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved"]},{"key":"dc:rights.embargotype","label":"Dc Rights Embargotype","values":["controlled.access"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.123538"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/54fb84fa-7364-4283-82aa-75b02cc41004/download"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This dissertation explores singular cases of reception of Cornelius Celsus’s De medicina between the tenth and the nineteenth century to revise accepted definitions of medical humanism and show how ancient texts spurred the development of medicine at intellectual and practical levels across ten centuries. 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I then focus on the Renaissance vernacular translations of De medicina to argue for a more dynamic circulation of ancient medical works, which have been considered as pertaining only to university physicians and élite Latinate readers. In chapter 3, I explore how early modern surgeons developed techniques and technologies by bringing together the words of ancient authors like Celsus and the tools of the artisans, thus bridging the scholarship of medical humanism and the mechanical arts. Finally, I explore the concurrent development of early nineteenth-century anatomy and philology in Leonardo Targa’s editorial work on De medicina, showing that a focus on his practices of dissection of texts and bodies reveals symmetrical forms of thinking in the premodern sciences and humanities."]},{"key":"dc:format.checksum.md5","label":"Dc Format Checksum Md5","values":["772fc3cf22141e50c6c723d3f41ed7e3","87eda9de84448d1f82354d60eee3eb5f"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Ten Centuries of Celsus’s De Medicina: Practical Histories of Medical Humanism"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Margócsy, Dániel"],"dc:creator":["Marchiori, Silvia Maria"],"dc:creator.authoridentifier":["000900005132138X"],"dc:date.issued":["2025-06-30"],"dc:description.abstract":["This dissertation explores singular cases of reception of Cornelius Celsus’s De medicina between the tenth and the nineteenth century to revise accepted definitions of medical humanism and show how ancient texts spurred the development of medicine at intellectual and practical levels across ten centuries. 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I then focus on the Renaissance vernacular translations of De medicina to argue for a more dynamic circulation of ancient medical works, which have been considered as pertaining only to university physicians and élite Latinate readers. In chapter 3, I explore how early modern surgeons developed techniques and technologies by bringing together the words of ancient authors like Celsus and the tools of the artisans, thus bridging the scholarship of medical humanism and the mechanical arts. 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