Abstract
Giambattista Da Monte methodically discussed the causes of disease according to Galenic definitions and applied these causes in his diagnosis and treatment of patients, devising a seemingly original interpretation of the categories of procatarctic, proegoumenic or antecedent, and containing causes. While discussions of these causal categories are found in medieval medical works, during the first half the sixteenth century, medical theorists reappraised them. Niccolò Leoniceno, for example, questioned whether Galen in fact endorsed containing causes as an explanatory category. Da Monte, however, reaffirmed its importance in etiology while mapping out its relation to antecedent causes. His interest in these causes extended beyond theoretical consideration. He outlined, in his commentary on Avicenna’s Canon, how therapy should address each of the causes in an orderly fashion. Moreover, these theoretical considerations on causes are reflected in the collections of his consilia, case studies that detail his attempts to heal patients. In these case studies, Da Monte made efforts to identify various kinds of causes in order to find cures, revealing a robust understanding of disease and the limited role of humoral theory in both his etiology and his medical practice.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
For Niccolò’s activity and its uneven reception, see McVaugh 2006.
- 3.
Galen 1904, 6: ‘Stoycos philosophos novi primos contentivam causam que et conjuncta dicitur nominare’.
- 4.
Galen listed the six non-naturals at Ars medica 23. See Galen 2000, 346 (1.367K).
- 5.
Translation from Galen 2011, 369.
- 6.
On Containing Causes is not listed in the inventory of his library. See Mugnai Carrara 1991, 103–221.
- 7.
Leoniceno 1508, 2r–2v: ‘Galenus, docens curare iam factam aegritudinem, scribit haec verba secundum translationem quae in usu habetur: “Facta vero aegritudo curabitur dispositione, a qua principaliter secundum naturam operatio laeditur, ablata, quam et ipsam dicimus aegritudinis causam”. … Galenus suo dogmati contradicit, si ita dicat dispositionem laedentem principaliter operationes non esse aegritudinem, sed causam aegritudinis’. The passage Leoniceno wants to emend is found at Ars medica 28. See Galen 2000, 361 (1.381K).
- 8.
- 9.
Da Monte cited Galen’s De pulsuum differentiis 1.1 but appears to have had in mind the passage from the beginning of Galen’s De causis pulsuum. See Galen 1821–1833, Vol. 9, 1–2.
- 10.
Compare with Galen’s De causis symptomatum, 2.5 (Galen 1821–33, Vol. 7, 95).
- 11.
Da Monte 1557, 542: ‘Qui non habuerit cognitionem causarum nunquam poterit recte curare ipsum morbum’.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
The extent to which Da Monte worked and taught in the hospital has for been controversial for long. For a summary of the literature, see Stolberg 2014a, 653–656.
- 15.
- 16.
For his method of discovering hidden causes, see Bylebyl 1993.
- 17.
Da Monte 1559a, 1r: ‘Ex omnibus intrinsecis causis, quae ad affectus capitis praeter naturam generandos conducunt, potissimae sunt ventriculi imbellicitas, atque hepatis caliditas’.
- 18.
Da Monte 1559a, 47v–49r.
- 19.
Da Monte 1559a, 191r: ‘Quantum attinet ad causas intrinsecas, est primo causa, quae habet formam causae antecedentis, praeter eam quae loco affecto coniuncta est’.
- 20.
Da Monte 1559b, 542–543: ‘Praeponatis ea, quae foris appareant, & texetis ita simplicem historiam’.
- 21.
Da Monte 1559b, 546–547: ‘Videamus an sit una horum omnium caussa, an vero diversae. Et si una, quomodo sit’.
- 22.
Da Monte 1559b, 547: ‘omnia symptomata ab una caussa procedere, videlicet a pituate mixta cum bile’.
- 23.
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Martin, C. (2022). Galenic Causation in the Theoretical and Practical Medicine of Giambattista Da Monte. In: Favaretti Camposampiero, M., Scribano, E. (eds) Galen and the Early Moderns. International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, vol 236. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86308-1_3
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