Abstract
The radical moisture is a Galenic physiological concept developed by medieval Arabo-Latin medicine, referring to an inborn moisture specific to living beings. Illustrated by the metaphor of the oil lamp, it is compared to an oily wick consumed by the flame of innate heat, whose extinction is synonymous with death. The vital moisture is involved in the physiological discussion on spirit and innate heat regarding the conservation of life. It also provides abundant parallels in chymistry developed by Platonic and Paracelsian physicians.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Primary Literature
Fernel J (1567) Universa medicina. Apud Andream Wechelum, Paris
Severinus P (1571) Idea medicinae philosophicae, fundamenta continens totius doctrinae Paracelsicae, Hippocraticae et Galenicae. Ex officina Sixti Henricpetri, Basel
Secondary Literature
Bianchi ML (1982) Occulto e manifesto nella medicina del Rinascimento: Jean Fernel e Pietro Severino. Atti e Memorie dell’Accademia Toscana di Scienze e Lettere La Colombaria 47:183–248
Crisciani C (2005) Aspetti del dibattito sull’umido radicale nella cultura del tardo medioevo (secoli XIII-XV). In: Perarnau J (ed) Actes de la II Trobada Internacional d’Estudis sobre Arnau Vilanova. Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona, pp 333–380
Crisciani C, Ferrari G (2010) Introduzione. In: McVaugh MR (ed) Arnaldi de Villanova opera omnia, V.2. Tractatus de humido radicali. Publicacions de la universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, pp 319–571
Demaitre L (1992) The medical notion of ‘withering’ from Galen to the fourteenth century: the treatise on marasmus by Bernard of Gordon. Traditio 34:259–286
Hall TS (1971) Life, death and the radical moisture: a study of thematic pattern in medieval medical theory. Clio Med 6:3–23
Hirai H (2005) Le concept de semence dans les theories de la matière à la Renaissance, de Marsile Ficin à Pierre Gassendi. Brepols, Turnhout
Jacquart D (2006) La nourriture et le corps au Moyen Age. Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes 13:259–266
Lyndon Reynolds P (1999) Food and the body: some peculiar questions in high medieval theology. Brill, Leiden
Marinozzi S (2010) Umido radicale ed invecchiamento nel primo evo moderno. Med Secoli 22:531–552
McVaugh M (1974) The ‘humidum radicale’ in thirteenth-century medicine. Traditio 30:259–283
Niebyl PH (1971) Old age, fever, and the lamp metaphor. J Hist Med 26:351–368
Schäfer D (2012) More than a fading flame. The physiology of old age between speculative analogy and experimental method. In: Horstmanshoff HFJ (ed) Blood sweat and tears: the changing concepts of physiology from antiquity into early modern Europe. Brill, Leiden, pp 241–266
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Moreau, E. (2015). Radical Moisture. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_403-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_403-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities