Substance and Matter in an Unpublished Work by Girolamo Brasavola

Abstract

The article examines an unpublished work by Girolamo Brasavola,a physician from ferrara who lived and worked in Rome in the second half of the 17th century.This is the chapter De fermentatione of the lost Institutions Philosophico -Medicae by the same author.The work somehow reached Cardianl Gacomo Nini before 1680 and has been afterwards kept among the manuscripts of the Vatican Library.The article examines the materialistic and corpuscular philosophy and the medical theory adopted by Brasavola identifying their sources-Sennert,Gassendi Willis,Descartes-and illustrating their philosophical background.