Image of doctor of Italy in the XIV century through the eyes of a contemporary (based on the example of “Invectives against a doctor” by Francesco Petrarch)

Abstract

This article presents an attempt to reconstruct the image of doctor and the state of medicine in Italy in the XIV century. The work has an interdisciplinary character, is based on the traditions of the social and cultural history of medicine. The main source is Francesco Petrarchs essay Invectives against a doctor (the mid-XIV century). The study of the main source, which is a subjective reflection of the processes and phenomena of that time, is supplemented by a careful study of the cultural and historical component, the picture of the world at that time. The author concludes that Petrarch, a representative of the Renaissance worldview, uses medieval methods of appealing to authorities. In order to create a voluminous reconstruction, it becomes necessary to study the medieval worldview (Le Goff J., Truon N.). Significant attention is paid to the disclosure of such issues as the place of a symbol, hierarchy, words in the culture of that time. Such components of the picture of the world as corporatism, attitude to virtue and sin, manual labor, authorities, science, art and medicine are involved. Negative components of the image of doctor and medicine of Italy in the XIV century, as evidenced by Petrarch, are supplemented with an alleged positive or ideal component, which results in a volumetric characteristic of the issue.

Keywords

• image of doctor
• the history of medicine of italy in the xiv century
• francesco petrarca
• literature as a historical source
• medieval picture of the world