Contact: Gabriella.Zuccolin@open.ac.uk
I joined the Department of Classical Studies at the OU as Research Assistant in September 2012. I am currently involved in the “Negotiating Gender in Renaissance Medicine” research project run by Prof. Helen King. I have an MA in Philosophy (University of Pavia, Italy, 2003) and a PhD in Philosophy, Sciences and Culture of Late Antiquity, Medieval and Humanistic Age (University of Salerno, Italy, 2007). I have previously held a Sophia Fellowship at the Warburg Institute (2007), was postdoctoral Research Fellow at Pavia University from 2008 to 2011 and have taught a course on History of Medieval Philosophy at the University of Trieste, Italy (2012). I am an Affiliated Research Scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge.
Since 2003 I have been working on late medieval and early modern medical culture, with a special focus on issues of medical patronage and the figure of the court physician. I am currently exploring a new interdisciplinary approach within the historical-medical field trying to blend a philosophical approach to the material with linguistic, cultural and historical analysis. My conviction is that the study of the court as a dynamic environment for scientific patronage can provide important clues to help us re-evaluate the ways in which we regard late medieval and early modern medicine. My main interest lies in deepening our knowledge of how late-medieval and early-modern medical practitioners defined their role and obligations towards patients (healthy or ill) in issues related to health and body-care, such as disease but also dietetics, bedside manner and sexuality.
Michele Savonarola: Medicina e cultura di corte (co-edited with Chiara Crisciani), Florence 2011: Edizioni del Galluzzo – SISMEL.
Zuccolin, G. 2012, “Living with Animals at a 15th-Century Court: Physiognomy, Dietetics and Poetry”. Forthcoming in Dohm, B., Muratori, C. eds., Ethical Perspectives on Animals, 1400-1650 (Florence: Edizioni del Galluzzo – SISMEL).
Zuccolin, G. 2012, “The Speculum phisionomie by Michele Savonarola”, in Musco, A. ed., Universalità della Ragione. Pluralità delle Filosofie nel Medioevo / Universalité de la Raison. Pluralité des Philosophies au Moyen Âge / Universality of Reason. Plurality of Philosophies in the Middle Ages, Palermo: Biblioteca dell’Officina di Studi Medievali 14.I, vol. II.2, 873-86.
Zuccolin, G. 2011, “Nascere in latino ed in volgare. Tra la Practica ed il De regimine”, in Crisciani, C., Zuccolin, G. eds., Michele Savonarola. Medicina e cultura di corte. Florence: Edizioni del Galluzzo – SISMEL, 2011, 137-210.
Zuccolin, G. 2010, “Medici a corte e formazione del signore”, in Ferrari, M. ed., Costumi educativi nelle corti europee (XIV-XVIII secolo). Milan: Franco Angeli Editore, 77-102.
Zuccolin, G. 2010, “Les traités médicaux sur les bains d’Aqui Terme, entre XIVe et XVIe siècles”, in Boisseuil, D., Nicoud, M. eds., Séjourner aux bain: le thermalisme entre médecine et société (XIVe-XVIe siècles). Lyon: PUL, 31-61.
Zuccolin, G. 2010, “I chirurghi nel XIV secolo: formazione dottrinale e professionale”, in Becchi, E., Ferrari, M., Mazzarello, P. eds., Formare alle professioni. Figure della sanità. Milan: Franco Angeli Editore, 58-78.
Zuccolin, G. 2009, “L’immaginazione nella fisiognomica medievale”, in Bettetini, M., Paparella, F. eds., Immaginario e immaginazione nel Medioevo. Louvain la Neuve: FIDEM, 313-37.
Zuccolin, G. 2008, “Gravidanza e parto nel Quattrocento: le morti parallele di Beatrice d’Este e Anna Sforza”, Quaderni di Artes, 2: Beatrice d’Este (1475-1497), 111-45.
Zuccolin, G. 2008, “Sapere medico ed istruzioni etico-politiche: Michele Savonarola alla corte estense”, Micrologus. Nature, Science and Medieval Societies, 16 (I saperi nelle corti / Knowledge at the Courts), 313-26.
Zuccolin, G., 2008, “Il ruolo dell’exemplum nella produzione medica e religiosa di Michele Savonarola”, in Gadebusch Bondio, M., Ricklin, T. eds., Exempla medicorum. Die Ärzteund ihre Beispiele (14.-18. Jahrhundert). Florence: Edizioni del Galluzzo – SISMEL, 109-28.
Zuccolin, G. 2008, “Medicina, filosofia e cultura di corte (XV secolo, Italia settentrionale)”, I castelli di Yale. Quaderni di filosofia, 9: Medicina e Filosofia tra Medioevo e Rinascimento, 57-81.
Zuccolin, G. 2007, “Princely Virtues in De felici progressu of Michele Savonarola, Court Physician of the House of Este”, in Bejczy, I.P., Nederman, C.J. eds., Princely Virtues in the Middle Ages, 1200-1500. Turnhout: Brepols, 237-58.
Zuccolin, G. 2005, “Ruolo ed evoluzione della balneoterapia nel pensiero scientifico-medico in Italia dal XII al XVI secolo”, in Ciardi, M., Cataldi, R. eds., Il calore della Terra. Contributo alla Storia della Geotermia in Italia. Pisa: ETS, 98-115.
Zuccolin, G. 2004, “Note sui medici di corte del XV secolo”, L’Arco di Giano, 40 (2004), 63-78.
Zuccolin, G. 2004. Review of Bianchi, L., Studi sull’Aristotelismo nel Rinascimento, in Schola Salernitana. Annali, 9, 303-12.
I am currently finishing a critical edition of the unedited Latin physiognomic treatise Speculum phisionomie by Michele Savonarola (1385-1466), to be submitted to the Durham Medieval and Renaissance Series (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies).
