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Fernel, Jean

Born: c. 1497, Montdidier, France

Died: 26 April 1558, Fontainebleau, France

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Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy
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Abstract

Jean Fernel was one of the leading physicians and medical writers of his age, who not only set out compendious synoptic accounts of Galenic theory for the first time but also offered his own major reforms of medical theory in order to deal with contagious and other infectious diseases (which were not adequately dealt with in ancient medicine). He stands, therefore, alongside Paracelsus (1493–1541) and Girolamo Fracastoro (1483–1553), as the only would-be medical reformers of the sixteenth century.

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References

Primary Literature

  • Fernel J. 2003. Physiologia (1567). Trans. J. M. Forrester. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 93, American Philosophical Society: Philadelphia.

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  • Fernel, J. 2005. In Jean Fernel’s on the hidden causes of things: Forms, souls and occult diseases in Renaissance medicine, ed. John Forrester and John Henry. Leiden: Brill.

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Secondary Literature

  • Henry, J. 2011. “Mathematics made no contribution to the public weal”: Why Jean Fernel became a Physician. Centaurus 53: 193–220.

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  • Henry, J. 2013. Jean Fernel on celestial influences and the reform of medical theory. In Celestial novelties, science and politics on the eve of the scientific revolution (1540–1630), ed. Dario Tessicini and Patrick J. Boner, 133–157. Rome: Olschki.

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  • Hirai, Hiro. 2002. Humanisme, néoplaonisme et prisca theologia dans le concept de semence de Jean Fernel. Corpus 41: 43–69.

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  • Hirai, Hiro. 2005. Alter Galenus: Jean Fernel et son interpretation platonico-chretienne de Galien. Early Science and Medicine 10: 1–35.

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  • Matton, Sylvain. 2002. Fernel et les alchimistes. Corpus 41: 135–197.

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  • Sherrington, Sir Charles. 1946. The endeavour of Jean Fernel, with a list of the editions of his writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (reprinted Folkestone and London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1974).

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  • Siraisi, Nancy. 1987. Avicenna in Renaissance Italy: The Canon and medical teaching in Italian universities after 1500. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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  • Temkin, Owsei. 1977. The scientific approach to disease: Specific entity and individual sickness. In The double face of Janus and other essays in the history of medicine, ed. O. Temkin, 441–455. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

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Correspondence to John Henry .

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Henry, J. (2022). Fernel, Jean. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14169-5_301

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