Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance


The Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance is an international institute of advanced studies in the history of medicine and science based at the Domus Comeliana in Pisa. The centre belongs to the Institutio Santoriana – Fondazione Comel and is currently the major Italian institution devoted to the study of medical humanities. Its mission is to further the values of humanism and the advancement of scientific knowledge as particularly related to the historical and intellectual development of the European Medical Renaissance.

History

The CSMBR was established in January 2018 after the endowment of the Institutio Santoriana – Fondazione Comel to carry on the scientific legacy of the Italian physician, scientist, inventor and philosopher Santorio Santorio, who introduced the quantitative method to medicine and is reputed the father of quantitative experimental physiology, pursuant to the will of Prof. Marcello Comel founder of the institution.

Location

The premises of the CSMBR are in the Domus Comeliana, former private residence of Marcello Comel, located next to the Leaning Tower in Piazza dei Miracoli.

Organisation

The CSMBR is run by a committee of scholars that works in cooperation with three formal affiliates, the Centre for Medical History, University of Exeter, the Centre for the History of Medicine of the University of Padua, and the . The funding director of the CSMBR is Dr while the current President is the British historian Vivian Nutton.

Fundamental Principles

The moral philosophy of the CSMBR community is rooted in the key principles of Renaissance Humanism, meant as the commitment to acknowledging, respecting, and developing the human potential proper to each individual. Further to this, central to the CSMBR academic practices is the recovery and revival of classical tradition. In accordance with these principles, the aim of scholarly work is intended to allow each individual to form their own opinion, as freely and independently as possible. As a result, the CSMBR neither seeks nor promotes any direct political goal being constituted as an independent research institute, open to scholars of any nationality, without discrimination of ethnicity, gender, age, political, religious, or sexual orientation.

Prizes and Publications

The Centre provides awards and travel grants, such as the Santorio Award for Excellence in Research, the Santorio Fellowship for Medical Humanities and Science, while encouraging international cooperation through the biannual VivaMente Conference in the History of Ideas.
In partnership with Palgrave-MacMillan the CSMBR sponsors the series The series focuses on the intellectual tradition of western medicine as related to the philosophies, institutions, practices, and technologies that developed throughout the medieval and early modern period. It seeks to explore the range of interactions between various conceptualisations of the body, including their import for the arts and the way different medical traditions overlapped and borrowed from each other. The series hosts contributions Santorio Awardees and is particularly keen on contributions coming from young authors.