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Mainardi, Giovanni

Born: 24 February 1462

Died: 7 March 1536

  • Living reference work entry
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Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy

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Abstract

This article is a short biography of the Italian Renaissance physician and philosopher Giovanni Mainardi (Ferrara 1462–1536). The article includes the following sections: biography, heritage and rupture with the tradition, innovative and original aspects, impact and legacy. The last sections of the article are the references and some bibliographical data.

Mainardi was a professor of medicine at the Studium of Ferrara; he also practiced medicine at the court of Buda in Hungary, as physician to kings Ladislas II and Ludovicus, and at the court of Ferrara, as physician to the d’Este family, namely to the Cardinal Ippolito d’Este and the Duke Alfonso I.

The medical works by Mainardi are not numerous. Nevertheless, Mainardi left an important legacy to subsequent physicians. He participated in a famous dispute on the French pox, demonstrating that astrology is not necessary in order to explain the origins and transmission of the disease. But his major contributions to medical knowledge are his medical letters that inaugurated a new way of writing on medicine, as well as a new style both in reasoning and in medical practice. Mainardi also worked on pharmacy and medical diagnosis, correcting what he deemed the many errors contained in medieval pharmacology, and in Medieval and Renaissance commentaries on Galen’s Ars parva.

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References

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Primary Literature

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (UMR 7323), Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France

    Concetta Pennuto

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  1. Concetta Pennuto
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Correspondence to Concetta Pennuto .

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  1. Dept. of Philosophy a. Cultural Heritage, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Dept. of Philosophy a. Cultural Heritage, Venezia, Italy

    Marco Sgarbi

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  1. Center for the History of Philosophy and Science, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Hiro Hirai

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Pennuto, C. (2018). Mainardi, Giovanni. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_400-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_400-1

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