Silvia Marinozzi
Section of History of Medicine, Molecular Medicine Dept., “Sapienza” University of Rome, I
Maria Conforti
Section of History of Medicine, Molecular Medicine Dept., “Sapienza” University of Rome, I
Valentina Gazzaniga
Section of History of Medicine, Molecular Medicine Dept., “Sapienza” University of Rome, I
Keywords:
Bernardino Ramazzini , Neohippocratism, Iatromechanicism, Medical ethic
Abstract
Neo-hippocratism is a rational and mechanic method to explain pathological phenomena and discover the causes of diseases. Bernardino Ramazzini uses Hippocratic empirical observation to investigate the relations between the alterations of the air - due to mephitic vapours, of organic and inorganic origin - and the development of pathological processes. His notion of corruption of the atmosphere as the origin of epidemics and specific diseases, and that of prevention as the main strategy of modern medicine, is developed in medical literature and in the public medicine projects of the end of the seventeenth century.
