Medical History
Dr. Jeremy Wasser is pleased to deliver lectures at the invitation of Renaissance art historian Dr. Rocky Ruggiero. From this page, you can register for upcoming webinars. To view previous webinar recordings requires subscribing to Dr. Rocky Ruggiero’s subscriber service, RockyTV.
Rome Wasn’t Healed in a Day
The Surgeries, Sewers, and Spas of Ancient Rome
Dates: Wednesdays, October 30, November 6 & November 13, 2024
Time: 2:00 – 3:15pm ET | 11:00am – 12:15pm PT | 7:00 – 8:15pm London
Medicine and surgery in ancient Rome was built on the foundation established by their scientific predecessors in ancient Greece. The Romans adopted the Hippocratic humoral theory (not without some debate) and also eschewed the practice of human anatomical dissection, severely limiting their knowledge and understanding of what Hippocrates would have called the “nature of the body”.
Nevertheless, Roman physicians built onto these Greek antecedents adding new therapies and new medical instrumentation. They also, as part of their mastery of civil engineering, pioneered the development of what we would now call public health architecture and facilities. The legendary engineering skills of the ancient Romans enabled the design and construction of public health facilities unrivaled in the antique world.
Join physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser, on a journey to ancient Rome to learn about the medical and surgical knowledge of the physicians of that time. Come along and visit the Roman thermal baths, the sewer systems and the public toilets. Learn what it was like to live and party like it’s 199 CE!
Leonardo, Michelangelo and Sigmund
Freud’s Psychoanalysis of the Great Masters
Date: Thursday, September 19, 2024
Time: 2:00 – 3:00pm ET | 11:00am – 12:00pm PT | 7:00 – 8:00pm London
On a page in his sketchbook now known as the “Codex Atlanticus”, Leonardo da Vinci noted down a highly unusual experience. He claimed to remember from when he was a two- to three-year old child a bird landing on his cradle and sticking its tail feathers into his mouth.
In 1505, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to design and build his planned tomb. The pope died in 1513, long before the work was completed and Michelangelo had, by then, made significant changes to the original massive design. Far fewer than the forty planned statues, were ultimately made but the most famous of these, that of Moses, sits in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. Famously, Michelangelo depicted the lawgiver with what appear to be two horns on his head.
About 400 years later, the Viennese neurologist and psychiatrist, Sigmund Freud, applied the principles and techniques of the science and therapeutic technique he invented, psychoanalysis, to da Vinci’s childhood memory and the masterpiece of Michelangelo. In this webinar, I will discuss and analyze the impressively large clinical and historical literature on Freud’s writings on these two subjects. Freud was quite willing to apply psychoanalytic techniques to patients he himself had never had on the famous couch and his work with da Vinci and Michelangelo, while famously wrong in some respects, remains fascinating reading and provides us with unique insights into these two men and, more significantly, into the mind of the father of psychoanalysis himself.
Stigmata
THE ART AND MEDICINE OF THE WOUNDS OF CHRIST
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
A central tenet of the Christian faith is that Jesus was crucified by the Romans and died on the cross at Golgotha. The art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance is replete with representations of Christ’s Passion prior to the crucifixion and of Christ crucified including works by unknown artists as well as masterpieces by many of the great Renaissance painters from both southern and northern Europe. The imagery is ubiquitous and often quite graphic and sanguinary. This attests to the importance of this transformative event in the life of Christ; his death followed three days later by his resurrection. These beliefs are the essence of the Holy Week celebration culminating in the remembrance of the crucifixion on Good Friday and the Resurrection itself on Easter Sunday.
The Gospels describe five specific wounds that Jesus suffered during his crucifixion. Known as the Five Holy Wounds or the Five Precious Wounds these are the nail holes in his hands and feet and the wound in his side, as legend has it, pierced by the spear of the Roman soldier, Longinus. Jesus suffered additional injuries during the Passion including the laceration of his forehead and scalp by the Crown of Thorns. All these wounds are collectively referred to as “stigmata”, from the Greek word “stigma” (στίγμα) originally indicating a mark on the skin or a brand. In the 2000 years since the crucifixion of Jesus, some 300 people have been reported to have spontaneously manifested on their bodies some or all of Jesus’ wounds. The first and most famous of these “stigmatics” was St. Francis of Assisi, who manifested the stigmata in September 1223 while praying at La Verna on Mount Penna in Tuscany.
So, what are we in the 21st century to make of the phenomenon of stigmata? Is it solely a miracle bestowed on individuals with a special relationship to God and thus a sign of divine grace? Or are there, at least in some instances, medical explanations, either somatic or psychosomatic, for the appearance of these wounds?
House of Wax
The history of anatomical models as works of art and medicine
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
For at least the last 37,000 years, humans have sculpted and drawn the human form. What compelled our prehistoric ancestors to do this is unknown and subject to debate among prehistorians, but something compelled these ancient artists to represent human anatomy in stone, bone, and mammoth ivory. The ancient Mesopotamian civilizations and those of classical antiquity have left us with not just sculptures of human and semi-human form but also anatomically accurate models designed for medical diagnosis and therapeutic purposes. This trend continued and expanded throughout the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period.
Join physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser, for a tour of the history of anatomical representations of the human body. Why were these images of bodies (and body parts) made and how were they used by their makers and contemporary healers. What do the images tell us about how these peoples viewed the human body in health and disease and how they understood the relationship of humans to the world around them and to the universe itself, the microcosm in the macrocosm.
When the Saints Come Marching In
MEDICAL SAINTS AND THE DISEASES THEY CURE
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
It’s 1348 in Florence and the Black Death ravages the city and people are dying like flies. There is little the plague doctors can do and the priests seem to be helpless, in the face of an epidemic everyone saw as the wrath of God. You’re desperately afraid and don’t want to die. So, who you gonna call?
Reliance on the supernatural when dealing with disease was common in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Physicians and other healers at this time were wedded to the concept of the Four Humors—blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Promulgated by Hippocrates of Cos (c. 5th century BCE) and formalized by the 2nd century CE Roman physician, Galen, the proper balance of the Four Humors determined health and disease. Humoralism was medical dogma until its replacement by the germ theory in the middle to late 19th century. This erroneous premise resulted in a dearth of truly effective therapies for illness or injuries. Instead, people appealed to an amazingly large array of saints and to members of the Holy Family for intervention and help in recovery or survival.
Join physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser, for a tour of the sacred art representing the medical saints. Learn which saint was beneficial for which disease and why and how they were depicted in paintings, frescos, and sculpture. There truly was a saint for every body part and every ailment. The reasons for their medical roles and associations make for a fascinating, if sometimes gruesome tale.
Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees
LEONARDO DA VINCI AND THE NATURAL WORLD
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
Leonardo’s drawings of birds and his exploration into the mystery of bird flight are well documented in what is now known as the Codex on the Flight of Birds. In it, da Vinci speculates on the nature of bird flight and suggests devices and methods to test his concepts on how birds achieve their mastery of the air. He also writes of birds and bird flight in the Codex Atlanticus.
Leonardo da Vinci illustrated many other domestic and wild animals: horses—as noted by Vasari—but also dogs, cats, bears and a multitude of insects. His simple sketch of a dragonfly in flight accurately depicted the alternation of the flapping of the fore and hind wings. Thanks to the use of high-speed cameras, we now know that this wing beat pattern is accurate. However, it is not visible to the ordinary human eye.
Come along on a nature walk, with Leonardo da Vinci and physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser. We will explore da Vinci’s relationship and understanding of the natural world and how it influenced his representations of mammals, birds, insects, and other creatures. See what Leonardo saw when he observed animals as only he could. Share in the magic and the mystery of da Vinci’s natural world.
Call the Midwife
Women healers from the middle ages to the renaissance
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
Women are conspicuous by their absence from the annals of medical history. The principal reason for this lies in the patriarchal nature of Western societies from Antiquity into the modern era. Women were, for the most part, strictly forbidden from the formal study of medicine (or any other university discipline). With the possible exception of women healers like Trotula and the other so-called “ladies of Salerno”, we have very few records of women as professors of medicine or as recognized masters of the healing arts from the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
In spite of this millennia-long bias, women have played important roles as healers throughout human history. Working as midwives, herbalists, pharmacists, and practitioners of “folk medicine,” women healers have quite possibly examined and treated more patients than their male counterparts.
Join Dr. Jeremy Wasser as we redress this gender imbalance in medical history. This course will explore the ways in which women healers were trained, the specific medical specialties in which they worked, and the ways in which they interacted with their patients, especially female patients. We will also take a look at the response of the male medical community to the presence of women healers in their midst, a response that led, for example, to the formalization of midwifery training and the advent of the “male midwife” beginning in the 16th century.
The Notorious HVB
The Mystical and Medical World of Hildegard von Bingen
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
On September 16 in the year 1098, Mechthild of Merxheim was delivered of her 10th child. As was the custom, the little girl was given to the Church at the age of eight as an “oblate”, destined to become a nun and live a life of service to God. Thus began the saga of one of the most famous and fascinating women in Church history, Hildegard von Bingen.
Hildegard was one of a number of medieval women visionaries and mystics, women who received visions they believed came directly from God. Her recounting of them left us with three extraordinary, illuminated manuscripts known as the Scivias (The Way), the Liber Vitae Meritorum (the Book of Life’s Merits), and the Liber Divinorum Operum (the Book of Divine Works). She was a natural historian, a biologist, botanist, geologist, and also a healer. Hildegard wrote two books on physiology and medicine, the Causae et Curae and the Physica, leaving us with profound insights into the medieval understanding of the human body and medicine.
Hildegard’s work soon began to appear outside of Germany and by the year she died, a contemporaneous copy of the Liber Divinorum Operum arrived in Lucca and is now in the Biblioteca Statale. Scholars have suggested that the frescoes on the Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa (painted in 1391) share features with the illuminations of Hildegard’s visionary works as do some of the motifs on the baptismal font in the Basilica di San Frediano in Lucca. It has even been suggested that Hubert and Jan van Ecyk were deeply influenced by her Scivias in their painting of the Ghent Altarpiece.
The Chymical Wedding
Alchemy and Art, Medicine and Magic in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser
Alchemy was about much more than the search for the “Philosopher’s Stone” and the secret of transmuting base metals into gold. Alchemists were chemists before there was the modern science of chemistry. Before those medical disciplines had been formalized, alchemists were pharmacologists and toxicologists. They were healers and physicians of both the body and the soul. The alchemical masters viewed the body holistically. They were on a quest to understand the nature of the body and the influences of the natural world (the macrocosm) in the lives of human beings (the microcosm).
The course will start by tracing the origins of alchemical thinking and review the science and philosophy of ancient practitioners (some of whom we know by legend only). Course content will explore how later alchemical masters, such as Paracelsus, contributed to the evolution of alchemy into a holistic model of the nature of the human body. Physicians at this time were trained in the astrological connections to anatomy and medicine. However, this new holistic approach allowed alchemy to contribute to a novel logical framework for both diagnosis and therapy.
Lectures will examine how alchemical practitioners conceived of disease and how they attempted to use alchemy to “transmute” patients back to health. We will trace the roots of modern chemistry and medicine back to their alchemical origins. A selective review of the relevant alchemical literature will be referenced, along with analyses of the many Medieval and Renaissance artworks illustrating alchemical principles.
The Medical History of the Medici
Wealth, Power, Disease and Death
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
From 1397 to 1743, the Medici family was the most powerful family in Florence and one of the most influential in Europe. They produced bankers, politicians, rulers of Florence and Rome (four popes) and Pan-European aristocrats. Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici started things off by founding the Medici Bank. The Grand Ducal line ended with the death of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici. Along with nobility and wealth, family members suffered a wide variety of acute and chronic disorders. Throughout this 350-year period, the Medici schemed, ruled, lived, got sick and died. Join physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser, for an overview of the diseases that plagued the Medici throughout their time at the center European power.
Dottore Dante
Dante as Physician and Medicine in the Early Renaissance
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
Dante has been honored for centuries as il Sommo Poeta (the Supreme Poet). But was he also il Sommo Dottore (the Supreme Doctor)? Although there is no firm evidence that Dante ever formally attended university, this gap in his education did not prevent him from having a deep understanding of complex medical concepts for his time. He even included thousands of anatomical, physiological, and medical references in his literary works including his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. It is clear that he possessed an extraordinary knowledge and understanding of how the human body and the human psyche worked. Let physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser, be your guide, not through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, but through Dante’s medical literary legacy. Learn how patients and physicians of his day understood what Hippocrates called “the Nature of the Body” and how medicine was practiced at the transition point between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Deaths (and Diseases) of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects
A Medical Casebook Featuring Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Caravaggio and Others
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
What do we really know about the diseases that afflicted Michelangelo or Leonardo? What was the actual cause of Caravaggio’s death? Did Raphael really die from too much sex? Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects gave us the first and not entirely accurate picture of how many of the great and not-so-great artists of the Italian Renaissance lived their lives—but only a bit about their deaths. What light can our modern understanding of medicine shed on these recondite topics? Join physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser, for a fascinating trip through the medical records of some of the artistic giants of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque, as he builds a bridge from the medical understanding of Vasari’s time to that of today.
Leonardo da Vinci
Cardiovascular Physiologist and the First Biomedical Engineer
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
Join physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser, PhD, for an introduction to the Leonardo you may not be familiar with. Leonardo da Vinci: Cardiovascular Physiologist and the First Biomedical Engineer will present the ways Leonardo’s ideas on how the body actually works were centuries ahead of his time. You will learn how Leonardo’s keen observations have been re-discovered and confirmed thanks to modern experimental methods and medical imaging techniques such as MRI.
Black Death vs. Covid-19
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
Between the 6th and 19th centuries Europe suffered three major pandemics of the bubonic plague. From 1346 to 1350 alone, the Black Death claimed approximately 20 million lives and altered the political, medical and cultural nature of the affected societies. What can the history of medicine and the history of art teach us about how we, as human beings, respond to public health crises? Join physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser Ph.D., as he compares the pandemics of the past and present; Black Death vs. COVID-19!
The Nature of the Body
Medicine in the Renaissance as Told Through Science, Art, Literature, and Music
Presented by Dr. Jeremy Wasser with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
What was it like to be a patient during the Renaissance? Or a doctor? What did it mean to be sick at that time, medically or emotionally? How did society view and address those stricken by disease or injury? And how does the art, music, and literature of the Renaissance help us to learn about sickness and healing during this time?
Medical care at the time was heavily influenced by the medieval Church’s religious and spiritual approach to healing. However, with the Renaissance, new empirical and scientific developments around questions of medicine challenged healers and patients to negotiate these conflicting concepts.
This course will provide a selective but detailed review of what was known and believed about how the human body worked in health and disease between the 14th and 17th centuries in Europe. We will also explore how changes in our understanding of the human body from the earlier medieval concepts paved the way for the blossoming of truly modern medicine in the 18th century’s Age of Enlightenment. Join Dr. Jeremy Wasser in learning about the “nature of the body” through representations of health, disease, disfigurement, and death found in the art, music and literature of the Renaissance.
Director of galerie PLUTO
You can also view a recording of recent programming hosted by Dr. Wasser at galerie PLUTO. As director of galerie PLUTO, Dr. Wasser moderated “Healing Spaces: Sen Sound and Hospital Rooms in Conversations,” a conversation between two innovative pairs who are making a difference in hospital environments.