The Popes and Science

A very distinguished man who also occupied the post of physician to Pope Paul III was Thomas Cadimustus, a Belgian, who, after securing the doctorate in medicine and philosophy with distinction at Louvain, came to Rome and soon secured a place among the teachers there and attained a reputation for great learning and successful care of his patients. He became Secretary Apostolic as well as physician to the Pope, and evidently enjoyed the close friendship of the Pontiff.

Another of the physicians of Pope Paul III was Tiberius Palella, famous for his knowledge of medicine and with a special reputation for information with regard to plants. He is known for his many friendships with men of learning and left behind him the reputation, according to Mandosius, of being "a physician of the highest integrity interested above all in the health of the poor as well as the rich, without envy for others and a constant diligent seeker of the right."

Another of the physicians of Pope Paul III who as the great friend of the Jesuits might possibly be expected by those who misunderstand that Order to be opposed to Science, but proves to have been a great patron and friend of a whole series of the most prominent scientists of the time, was Joannes Aquilinus, or John of Aquila, a noted Neapolitan physician, who, after acquiring a great reputation in Naples, was called to the Professorship of Medicine at Pisa when that University was at the climax of its development. There he achieved so great a reputation that his contemporaries referred to him as a "second AEsculapius." Lacuna, who published a famous edition of Galen in 1548 which went through a series of editions, dedicated one portion of the edition to Aquilinus out of deference to his "love for good literature."

Another of the physicians to Pope Paul III was Franciscus Frigimelica, who, after having acquired extraordinary fame as a teacher, having been made professor at the University of Padua at the early age of twenty-eight, received offers from many of the Italian princes to become their physician. De Renzi in his Storia della Medicina in Italia says that he refused them all, but yielded to the solicitation of Pope Paul III, and seems to have been tempted by the atmosphere of intense medical science that had been created at Rome at this time. Frigimelica is famous for his study of baths and his treatise on the making of artificial baths with metallic salts. De Balneis Metallicis Artificio Parandis is an early classic in balneology. He also wrote a volume "On Various Medical Questions," a Pathologia Parva, and a number of his consultations were published.

Julius III (1550-55).--A very important Papal Physician is Maggi, who had been the professor of anatomy and surgery at Bologna, the uncle and teacher of the celebrated anatomist Aranzi. He became physician to Pope Julius III about 1550. His book on gunshot wounds is dedicated to Prince Giovanni Battista De Monte, nephew of Pope Julius and General-in-Chief of the Papal Army. Gurlt, in his great History of Surgery, declares that Maggi was the first who showed very clearly that shot wounds neither caused burning nor poisoning. To demonstrate this he made a series of carefully planned, most ingenious experiments and observations which were repeated hundreds of years afterwards, but only to confirm his conclusions. His method of handling gunshot wounds was very simple, and he laid the greatest weight on treatment directed to permitting the free exit of pus. He was the inventor of a series of instruments, the pictures of which we have and some of which are here reproduced. They show his ingenuity and anticipate a good many ideas that are supposed to be much more modern than his time. Gurlt has devoted more than eight pages of rather small type to a summarization of Maggi's work so that there is no doubt about its great importance in the history of surgery.

Another of the physicians of Pope Julius III was Hippolytus Salvianus, a doctor of medicine and of philosophy, of whom one of his contemporaries said that it was doubtful in which of these sciences he was the more learned and whether Hippolytus deserved more praise for his science or his faith or his diligence in caring for the sick. He wrote a volume in folio on fishes, illustrated by copper plate engravings (Rome, 1555), a volume On Crises as a commentary on Galen (Rome, 1558), and a book on aquatic animals (Venice, 1600). He has the distinction also of having ventured successfully in literature and he published poems and comedies which went through a number of editions. One of his sons became a popular Roman physician, the other a poet.

One of the great Italian anatomists, a pioneer in the development of the biological sciences, was John Baptist Cananus, who was one of the medical attendants of Pope Julius III. His well-known work "Illustrated Dissections of the Muscles of the Human Body," Musculorum Humani Corporis, Picturata Dissectio, Ferrara, 1572, in quarto, is one of the precious bibliographic treasures in medicine. He was the first to discover valves in veins, finding them in the azygos, and he made a series of original observations on the sense organs which gave a great stimulus to the development of the minute anatomy of these structures at this time.

Another of the physicians of Pope Julius III was Augustin Ricchi, one of the scholarly medical writers of the sixteenth century, whose erudite translations enriched the medicine of that time and of subsequent generations. Van der Linden notes that he translated a number of the books of Galen, adding annotations. They were published in Venice shortly after the middle of the sixteenth century. He had a wide acquaintance and friendship with the most learned men of his time.

Paul IV (1555-59).--One of the physicians to Pope Paul IV, of whom it is noted that he was also an intimate friend whom the Pontiff loved very dearly, was Jerome Cessa, doctor of medicine and philosophy, who wrote a work on medicine and a treatise on religion, and who is said to have refused the dignity of cardinal which was offered him because he felt that others worthier might be chosen.

One of the distinguished physicians of this time was Professor Altamare of Naples, of whom De Renzi in his Storia della Medicina in Italia tells that when he was compelled to fly from his native country by political disturbance, he was given a refuge by Pope Paul IV, under whose "wise and benevolent protection" he was able to continue his medical work for a time and through whose patronage he was restored to his professorship at Naples. As a mark of gratitude Altamare dedicated to Pope Paul IV his book De Medendis Humani Corporis Malts, Ars Medica.

Pius IV (1559-65).--Alidosius, in his work on "The Foreign Doctors Who Have Been Professors of Theology, Philosophy, Medicine and The Liberal Arts in Bologna" (Li Dottori Forestieri, che in Bologna hanno Letto Teologia, Filosofia, Medicina ed Arti Liberali), mentions John Andrew Bianchi, a doctor of medicine and the liberal arts, famous for his learning, who taught in the University of Bologna from 1525 to 1561 with great success and then was summoned to Rome to be the physician to Pope Pius IV to the satisfaction of everyone, for it was felt that he had achieved the highest place in his profession of medicine.

Simon Pasqua, a physician to Pope Pius IV, was the author of a book On The Gout and of a description of his Embassy to Great Britain from Genoa in the time of Queen Mary and Philip, but this, unfortunately, was only in manuscript and seems to have been lost.

Pompeius Barba, or dalla Barba, was another of the physicians of Pope Pius IV. He wrote a volume on "The Immortality of the Soul according to the Peripatetic Philosophers" which was published at Florence in 1553. Two years later he wrote a commentary on some of the writings of Pico della Mirandola and nearly twenty-five years later there appeared at Venice a dialogue of his "On Arms and Letters." He left in manuscript a book On Baths as well as some poems.

Still another of the physicians of Pope Pius IV was Franciscus Gymnasius, described by a contemporary (Caesar Mezamici in his Notizie Istoriche) as "so distinguished in the profession of medicine that while he was professor in Bologna many of the princes of Italy called him in consultation when they were seriously ill and constantly with a happy issue." Pius IV called him to Rome, honored him with one of the principal chairs in the Papal University of the Sapienza, providing a special stipend for him, and made him his personal physician. Gymnasius added to his fame and obtained universal esteem in the Curia. His tomb is in the Church of the Minerva at Rome.

A very interesting character at Rome during the later Renaissance was Jerome Cardan, who though not a papal physician by formal appointment, after wandering all over the world in various capacities, lived his last years at Rome, enjoying a pension from the Pope. He is a type of the many-sided, many-minded man of the Renaissance. In 1524 he received his degree of doctor in medicine at Padua, practised for ten years and then became professor of mathematics in Milan, and a few years later taught medicine at Pavia, refused the corresponding professorship at Copenhagen, spent nearly a year with Archbishop Hamilton of St. Andrews, the primate of Scotland, returned to Italy to practise once more, refusing many offers of professorships in foreign universities, taught for some years at Pavia and then at Bologna and spent the last five years of this varied, and at the end rather stormy career, at Rome living on the Papal bounty. He is one of the great geniuses of the time whose "vanity, boastfulness, childish credulity, superstitiousness was bound up with a genius that opened up many new paths in science" (Gurlt). His work meant more for philosophy and, above all, for mathematics than for medicine, but he has an important place in the history of science.

Another genius who spent some years in Rome about the same time, and evidently found it eminently favorable for his work, was Jerome Mercurialis, who was sent by his native city to Rome on a mission to Pope Pius IV, when about 32, and secured opportunities for study in Rome so much to his desires that he spent seven years in medical and philological studies there. After this he was invited to be Trincavella's successor at Padua and from here was summoned by the Emperor Maximilian II on a consultation to Vienna and richly rewarded for his services. After seven years of medical professorship at Padua he was for some twelve years in a similar capacity at Bologna, which was then a Papal University, and then accepted the call of the Grand Duke Cosimo I to Pisa. The Medici were laboring at this time to make Pisa an important rival in education of Padua and Bologna and were offering alluring salaries and special inducements to the most distinguished teachers in every department. Mercurialis' books on skin diseases, on women's diseases, on the diseases of children and on gymnastics, went through many editions and now sell for good prices in auction rooms, for he is considered one of the classics of medicine.

Pius V (1564-72).--One of the physicians and intimate friends of Pope St. Pius V was Placidus Fuscus, who wrote a volume "On the Use and Abuse of Astrology in Medicine." Fuscus, according to the inscription on his tomb, was "distinguished for his social service, his work at the hospital of the Santo Spirito and among the poor of Rome and especially those in prison."

Gregory XIII (1572-85).--As might be expected, the physician of Pope Gregory XIII, the Pope to whom we owe the correction of the calendar, was a distinguished medical scientist who had been earlier an intimate friend as well as physician to St. Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuits. His name was Alessandro Trajano Petronio of Castiglione, and he is often mentioned in the medical literature of the time and wrote a book, De Victu Romanorum et de Sanitate Tuenda, "On The Diet of the Romans and the Preservation of Health," which he dedicated to Pope Gregory XIII. He also wrote a work on "The Water of the Tiber" and a series of dialogues on medicine as well as "Medical Aphorisms" (Venice, 1535.)

Sixtus V (1585-90).--The principal physician of Pope Sixtus V was Andreas Baccius, "who was famous not only as a physician but as a philosopher and a man of erudite and polished intellect." Pope Sixtus occupied himself with bringing fresh supplies of water into Rome and we have a series of studies of these waters made by his physician. He also wrote on baths and especially on those in the neighborhood of Rome. There is also a book by him on "The Wines of Italy and The Banquets of the Ancients." He was much more than an amateur as an antiquary and wrote a book on "The Origin of the Old City of Cluana." There is also a book of his on "Gems and Precious Stones," a volume on "Poisons and their Antidotes," as well as a series of shorter writings.

De Renzi in his Storia della Medicina in Italia tells the story of the earlier career of Baccio. As a younger man he became so deeply interested in his scientific studies at Rome that he did not succeed in practising medicine and was in danger even of starving because he had not practical ways. He was rescued by Cardinal Ascanio Colonna, who became his patron and provided him with the opportunity to devote himself to scientific studies without the necessity of thinking about the obligation of gaining his daily bread. Baccio became celebrated for his learning so that according to De Renzi his "profound erudition passed into a proverb in his time." His great opportunity came, adds De Renzi, when he was made Papal Physician to Pope Sixtus V.

Castor Durantes, a skilled physician and poet, was another of the medical attendants of Pope Sixtus V. In Giacobilli's catalogue the following works are noted–"Treasure of Health," "On the Nature of Food," which ran through many editions, the New Herbarium, and Theatrum Plantarum, Animalium, Piscium, et Petrarum, Venetiis, 1636. His Herbarium was done in verse and besides he wrote a series of poems in Virgilian metre which attracted favorable attention from his contemporaries.

Urban VII (1590-91).--The physician of Pope Urban VII was Demetrius Canevarius, who was in his time, according to contemporary authorities, the leading physician of Genoa when he was called to Rome. He made a magnificent success at Rome, became very wealthy, but was famous for his hospitality, his many friends and the magnificent library which he collected, "filled with all the best books." We have from him a book on "The Practice of Medicine," another on the "Diagnosis, Prognosis and Cure of Fevers" and a third on "The Procreation of Man." Like most of the physicians of his time he was a philosopher as well as a medical scientist and so we have two philosophic monographs from him, one on "The Origin and Destruction of Natural Things," another on "First Principles."

Canevari, to use his more familiar Italian name, is famous as one of the great bibliophiles of history. He had a series of the most beautiful bindings made for his books and these have been the precious treasures of collectors ever since. To own a Canevari binding is a much-prized distinction in the world of rare books.

Innocent IX (1591).--Malpighi, one of the Papal Physicians of this Pope, is one of the greatest of medical scientists. His career is sketched earlier in this book. Another of his scarcely less distinguished physicians was Lucas Tozzius, who succeeded Malpighi. It would indeed have been difficult to have filled adequately the room of so great a predecessor, but while Tozzi's powers of observation and scientific genius were not so penetrating as those of Malpighi, his books probably influenced his own generation of physicians almost more than those of his great scientific predecessor. He wrote a volume on the theory and another on the practice of medicine, wrote commentaries on the aphorisms of Hippocrates and on the medical art of Galen, as well as some volumes on philosophy and even lighter subjects. He was looked upon as one of the most talented men in Italy of his time and his scholarly erudition made him the friend of learned visitors to Italy from every country in Europe.

Clement VIII (1592).--Jerome Provenzalis, "a philosopher of distinction, most expert physician, theologian of great name and yet a practical genius of the highest ability who had scarcely his equal in his generation in Italy" (Mandosius), was the medical attendant of Pope Clement VIII. One of his books, a treatise on the senses (Rome, 1597), attracted wide attention in his time and still has a place in the bibliography of the sensations.

Another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII was Jerome Rubeus, who wrote books on history as well as medicine. He is well known as the author of a history of Ravenna and its neighborhood and people which contains an account of the Goths, the Lombards and the Italians of the earlier Middle Ages from the materials then at hand. He is best known in medicine for his "Annotations on Cornelius Celsus' De Re Medica." He wrote a treatise on Destination and a monograph on The Dietetic Value of Melons. His book on Destination appeared in editions at Venice, at Basel, at Ravenna and probably also at Rome. Rubeus has a place in most of the histories written at this time.

Another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII was Jerome Cordella. While he is highly praised for his knowledge of philosophy and his skill in medicine he is better known for his intimate friendship with St. Philip Neri, of whom Cardinal Newman, in the nineteenth century, was so proud to proclaim himself the spiritual son. Jerome was of assistance to St. Philip particularly in the magnificent social work which meant so much for the correction of social abuses at this time and, above all, the occupation of youthful minds with higher thoughts.

Among Zecchius' books, who was another of the physicians to Pope Clement VIII, is one on "The Means of Curing Especially Such Fevers as Arise from Putrid Humors." Another is called "Medical Consultations or The Whole Practice of Medicine Briefly Treated," a third is on "The Use of Italian Waters," and then besides there are a series of shorter papers on Hippocrates' Aphorisms, on Digestion, on Purgation, on The Letting of Blood, on Critical Days and on the Morbus Gallicus.

Caesalpinus the Botanist.--Caesalpinus is mentioned in the text of the previous edition of this work as a professor at the Papal Medical School, the Sapienza, and physician to Pope Clement VIII. In the history of science, however, he should rather be counted among the botanists than the physicians, though there is no doubt that he was the first fully to describe the systemic circulation. Edward Lee Greene, in his Landmarks of Botanical History, which is "A Study of Certain Epochs in the Development of the Science of Botany" (part of volume 54 of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Washington, 1909), mentions that "The Caesalpinus system of plant arrangement seemed incomparably superior to every one that had preceded it." Linnaeus in the warmth of zeal for the great Caesalpino had pronounced him "first in the order of time among real systematists." Caesalpinus is then one of the great founders of modern botany and his work De Plantis is a foundation stone of the science. Gurlt talks of him as the greatest botanist of his century and his work as director of the botanical garden of Pisa did much both for medicine and botany. A little practical work of his was a Manual of the Practice of Medicine, which attracted much attention and is in line with the efforts of Papal Physicians as a rule to make knowledge available for the use of physicians generally.

Still another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII was Michael Mercatus, an intimate personal friend of the well-known social reformer St. Philip Neri, whose profound influence on the social life of Rome is a matter of history and to whom such men as Newman and Faber and the English Oratorians turned with the loving name of Father in the nineteenth century. Mercatus wrote a series of instructions on the Pest and his medical volume contains also articles on antidotes against poisons, the gout and paralysis. Like many of the physicians of his century he was interested in Oriental problems and wrote a volume on the obelisks of Rome which was published in 1589 and dedicated to Pope Sixtus V. This led to a controversy with Latino Latini during which Mercatus published another volume on the obelisks. Mercatus came of a well-known scholarly family, for his grandfather had been a close friend of Marsilio Ficino and a member of the famous Platonic Academy.

Another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII, at least he received the honor of the appointment as Papal Physician, though he could not come to Rome to fulfil its duties because of the approach of age, was Nicholas Masinus. He is well known for his work on "The Abuse of Cold Drinks," which was published in 1587. The custom of gathering snow on the mountains and using it in their wine and other drinks during the summer time, which had been practised by the ancient Romans, was revived at the time of the Renaissance and Masinus was sure that it was productive of harm to the digestive system.

Still another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII who deserves mention was Jacobus Bonaventura, to whom Athenius of Brussels dedicated his edition of the "Medical Consultations of Jerome Mercurialis," calling him "a very distinguished man." He was a particular friend of Mercurialis, who expressed his opinion of him in the highest terms. He made a great many friends among the nobility of Italy and was very dear to the Sovereign Pontiff.

Still another of the physicians of Pope Clement VIII was Julius De Angelis, who came of a well-known academic family with many members distinguished in law and medicine. He was professor at Padua for years and afterwards at the Sapienza in Rome and was chosen by the Pope to give special lessons for the benefit of physicians and medical attendants at the Santo Spirito Hospital in Saxia as it was called. He is mentioned in a number of medical works of the time, and in the book of the Statutes of the College of Physicians of the City of Rome.

Paul V (1605-21).--One of the physicians of Pope Paul V, though at first he had refused the honor because it is said that as an astrologer he had found the stars unfavorable to his acceptance of it, was Pompeius Caimus, from whom we have a number of medical writings. Van der Linden, in De Scriptis Medicis, and others furnish the list of them. He wrote "On Congenital Heat," on "The Indications of Putrid Fevers," on "The Recognition and Cure of Melancholia," on "The Nature of Science and Its Acquisition," "On Grief," a "Treatise on Human Longevity and the Climacteric Years," as well as "Dissertations on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna," which had been delivered as lectures at Padua, on "The Nature and Differences of Winds," and on "The Early Recognition and the Lengthening of Old Age," besides translating and annotating a number of the works of the old Greek philosophers and physicians in Latin. It may seem strange that a man of such wide erudition and scholarship should still cling to the delusion of astrology, but about this same time Galileo and Kepler were drawing up horoscopes, and in the middle of the eighteenth century Mesmer's astrological essay was accepted for the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the University of Vienna. Caimus, after refusing the chair of medicine at the University of Pisa, to which a magnificent salary was attached, became the physician to Pope Gregory XV.

Gregory XV (1621-23).--Vincentius Crucius was another of the physicians of Pope Gregory XV. He had been a professor at Bologna and we have from him his lectures at Bologna on "Epilepsy or The Comitial Disease," published at Venice in 1603. Books of his "On Catarrh," published at Ravenna, on "The More Frequent Diseases of The Head; Catarrh, Phrenitis, Lethargy and Epilepsy," published at Rome, 1617, and "The More Frequent Diseases of the Chest; Phthisis, Haemoptysis, Asthma, Peri-pneumonia, and Pluritis," issued also at Rome, a volume on "The Diseases of The Stomach" and a series of volumes of Consultations on Medicine, were well known to his contemporaries and to succeeding generations. He wrote besides a commentary on Lucretius, another on Hippocrates, a book on Prophylaxis, a volume on Vesuvius and a popular work in Italian, all his other works having been in Latin, meant to be of assistance to ordinary people in avoiding disease and especially the infectious diseases.