Marialuisa Baldi - The Contradicentia medicorum libri by Girolamo Cardano. A new DVD

8/19/2019 Marialuisa Baldi - The Contradicentia medicorum libri by Girolamo Cardano. A new DVD

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ANNOUNCEMENT

THE C ONTRADICENTIA MEDICORUM LIBRI BY

GIROLAMO CARDANO

A new DVD

As Nancy Siraisi noted some years ago, ‘the Contradictiones is at once a key

text for Cardano’s ideas about medical knowledge’ and ‘a prime example’ of

the multiple strands in his thought.1

It is the longest work by Cardano

in medicine, and one of the longest and most important of all his writings

(628 pp.).

Intended as twelve books, it was never published in entirety while

Cardano was alive. The first edition, in one book, appeared in 1545

(Venice: H. Scotus), the second, doubled in length, in 1548 (Lyon: S.

Gryphius) and again in 1564 – 5 (Paris: J. Mace ´ ). In 1663 Charles Spon

(Cardano’s Opera omnia, vol. VI, Lyon, I. A. Huguetan et M. A. Ravaud)

edited ten books (books 3 – 10 from manuscripts), excluding the last two,

which were in too poor a condition to be published.2

The manuscripts are

now lost.

The work is a collection of citations and arguments of the most eminentancient, medieval and contemporary medical authors, in order to show their

divergences, or contradictions. Cardano aims at emulating Pietro d’Abano’s

Conciliator, and at subverting its harmonizing method as well. He confirms

his criticism of contemporary medicine, already expressed in De malo

recentiorum medendi usu (1536), which widened his polemic with the medical

institutions in the city of Milan. In 1545, as he had just received the chair of

medicine at the University of Pavia (1544), he probably decided to publish a

work in medical theory, which is appropriate to his appointment; but he did

not give up engaging in controversy with his colleagues and the authoritiesfollowed him doggedly, principally Galen, as the best representative of the

entire ancient medical tradition.

Nowadays, because of Galenic doctors’ ignorance, their patients die in the

proportion of two to one comparing with those treated by the ones they call

barbarous . . . They are so stubborn they would prefer a hundred sick to die

1See N. G. Sisaisi, ‘The clock and the mirror’. in Girolamo Cardano and Renaissance Medicine

(Princeton, New Jersey, 1997) p. 44.2See I. Maclean, introduction to G. Cardano, De Libris Propriis. The editions of 1544, 1550,

1557 1562 with supplementary material ed with an intro and chronology of Cardano’s works

British Journal for the History of Philosophy 13(4) 2005: 815 – 817



than admit that the ones they consulted are right’. Yet, despite the polemic

with the Galenic tradition and the large use of Hippocrates, Cardano’s

medicine is Galenic in many respects.

With typical humanistic pleasure in eclecticism and free discussion, Cardano

intermingles medical themes and arguments with autobiographical refer-

ences, historical records and philosophical treatments of different topics

related to medicine and science, such as the immortality of the soul and the

causes or generation and corruption, and the quality and number of natural

elements. In fact, according to contemporary thought, medicine is related to

philosophy from many points of view.

Owing to its extension and encyclopaedism, the work is fundamental in

the history of medicine; it is also an exceptional repository of lexicons and

ideas of sixteenth-century science and philosophy. It is of a great interest for

researchers in Cardano, and for specialists in Renaissance and modernthought.

The DVD3 contains the full transcription of the Contradicentia medicorum

libri , according to the longest edition existing – that published in the sixth

volume of Cardano’s Opera omnia, – and a reproduction of all its sixteenthth

and seventeenth-century editions. Thanks to special software, the transcript

is linked to the corresponding image. The user can read and consult the text;

in addition, he can annotate it, confront the textual elements of the

transcription and the parts of the corresponding images, and so collate the

various editions. Three indices (words, names, antonomasia) are supplied;new ones may be created, according to the reader’s own interests. The whole

transcription is separately added in word format.

Unlike similar electronic products, this DVD is intended as an aid to

studying Cardano and editing his works, and in researching Renaissance

philosophy and science.

The DVD is a product of the ‘Cardano Project’, which has been promoted

by Guido Canziani (Universita ` degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di

Filosofia) and by Marialuisa Baldi (CNR, Istituto per la storia del pensiero

filosofico e scientifico moderno, sezione di Milano) for the study and theedition of Cardano’s works.4

3Project and scientific co-ordination: M. Baldi (Istituto per la storia del pensiero filosofico e

scientifico moderno, sezione di Milano, CNR); A. Bozzi (Istituto di Linguistica computazio-

nale, CNR, Pisa); G. Canziani (Dipartimento di Filosofia, Universita ` degli Studi, Milano).

Technical co-ordination: A. Raggioli (M.E.T.A., Lucca).4Works by Cardano already published: De libris propriis, ed. by I. Maclean, cit.; De subtilitate,

edizione critica a cura di E. Nenci, tomo I, libri I-VII (Milano, 2004). De immortalitate

animorum is expected by the end of 2005. Two conferences were held in Milan in 1997 and in2002: Girolamo Cardano. Le opere, le fonti, la vita, a cura di M. Baldi e G. Canziani (Milano,

1999); Cardano e la tradi ione dei saperi a cura di M Baldi e G Canziani (Milano 2003) The

816 ANNOUNCEMENT



The Opera omnia and other works are online on the web page http://

filolinux.dipafilo.unimi/cardano; a bibliography since 1850, and the

catalogue of the ‘Archivio Cardano’, a collection of microfilms of Cardano’s

works in the sixteenth and seventeenth-century editions, are also supplied. A

special section on the web page is now devoted to Renaissance in Lombardia

and in Northern Italy.

The DVD is free. An upgraded version (containing the ‘index verborum

graecorum’) will be on-line by the end of 2005.

For further information, please write to [email protected]

or [email protected]

Marialuisa Baldi, CNR, Milan

ANNOUNCEMENT 817



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Marialuisa Baldi - The Contradicentia medicorum libri by Girolamo Cardano. A new DVD