Sanctorius Sanctorius and the origins of health measurement / Teresa Hollerbach.
2023
R520.S36
Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Online Access
Concurrent users
Unlimited
Authorized users
Open access
Document Delivery Supplied
Open access
Details
Title
Sanctorius Sanctorius and the origins of health measurement / Teresa Hollerbach.
Author
Hollerbach, Teresa, author.
ISBN
9783031301186 (electronic bk.)
3031301188 (electronic bk.)
9783031301179
303130117X
303130120X
9783031301209
3031301188 (electronic bk.)
9783031301179
303130117X
303130120X
9783031301209
Published
Cham : Springer, [2023]
Copyright
©2023
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xxii, 327 pages)
Other Standard Identifiers
10.1007/978-3-031-30118-6 doi
Call Number
R520.S36
Dewey Decimal Classification
610.92
Summary
This open access book offers new insights into the Venetian physician Sanctorius Sanctorius (1561–1636) and into the origins of quantification in medicine. At the turn of the seventeenth century, Sanctorius developed instruments to measure and quantify physiological change. As trivial as the quantitative assessment of health issues might seem to us today – in times of fitness trackers and smart watches – it was highly innovative at that time. With his instruments, Sanctorius introduced quantitative research into the field of physiology. Historical accounts of Sanctorius and his work tend to tell the story of a genius who, almost out of the blue, invented a new medical science, based on measurement and quantification, that profoundly influenced modernity. Abandoning the “genius narrative,” this book examines Sanctorius and his work in the broader perspective of processes of knowledge transformation in early modern medicine. It is the first systematic study to include the entire range of the physician’s intellectual and practical activities. Adopting a material culture perspective, the research draws on the contemporary reconstruction of Sanctorius’s most famous instrument: the Sanctorian weighing chair. And here it departs from past studies that focus mainly on Sanctorius’s thinking rather than on his making and doing. The book also re-evaluates Sanctorius’s role in the wider process of the early transformation of medical culture in the early modern period, a process that ultimately led to the abandonment of Galenic medicine and to the introduction of a new medical science, based on the use of quantification and measurement in medical research. The book is therefore an important contribution to the history of medicine and historical epistemology aimed at historians of science and philosophy.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references.
Access Note
Open access
Source of Description
Online resource; title from PDF title page (SpringerLink, viewed May 25, 2023).
Available in Other Form
Print version: 9783031301209
Linked Resources
Online Access
Record Appears in
Online Resources > Ebooks
All Resources
All Resources
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface (Dr. Matteo Valleriani)
Introduction
List of Figures
Abbreviations and Short Titles
Chapter 1. Sanctorius Sanctorius—Between Koper and Venice
Chapter 2. Sanctorius’s Galenism
Chapter 3. Sanctorius’s Work in its Practical Context
Chapter 4. Quantification in Galenic Medicine
Chapter 5. Quantification and Certainty
Chapter 6. The Measuring Instruments
Chapter 7. Sanctorius Revisited
List of Appendices.
Preface (Dr. Matteo Valleriani)
Introduction
List of Figures
Abbreviations and Short Titles
Chapter 1. Sanctorius Sanctorius—Between Koper and Venice
Chapter 2. Sanctorius’s Galenism
Chapter 3. Sanctorius’s Work in its Practical Context
Chapter 4. Quantification in Galenic Medicine
Chapter 5. Quantification and Certainty
Chapter 6. The Measuring Instruments
Chapter 7. Sanctorius Revisited
List of Appendices.