Blutkreislauf und Dreieinigkeit. Medizinischer Antitrinitarismus von Michael Servet (1511–1553) bis Giorgio Biandrata (1515–1588)

This paper centers on the relationship between renaissance medicine and antitrinitarianism forming an important part of the radical reformation in 16th century. Antitrinitarians denied the theological concept of the triune Christian God. Modern antitriniarianism was first formulated by Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician. The doctrine soon won disciples in northern Italy (Padua, Pisa, Rome) and in some countries of eastern central Europe (Poland, Moravia, Transylvania). Physicians who believed in or sympathized with antitrinitarianism revolutionized the theory of blood flow. They developed new concepts leading to Harvey's theory of the circulation of the blood. Parts of Servet's theory looked like Paracelsus's mystical idea of the eternal flesh of the body of Christ (Latin limbus aeternus), but later the medicine and natural philosophy of antitrinitarian physicians tended to be empiristic, rational and sometimes materialistic. They contributed heavily to the diffusion and physiological foundation of antitrinitarian concepts like unitarianism, tolerance and irenism.     

Wissenstransfer auf dem Prüfstand. Europäische Mediziner im Kampf gegen die Pest von Moskau 1771

Foreign knowledge being tested: European physicians fighting the Moscow plague of 1771. – The transfer of Western medicine to Russia increased significantly in the Eighteenth century. Foreign doctors were employed, their writings translated, their education standards copied. But who regarded that knowledge as superior and why? Taking the Moscow Plague of 1771 as a case study, this article examines the crucial role foreign and Russian medical practitioners played during the epidemic. It argues that especially those ideas and practices that were useful for social control filtered into politics and public discourse, but failed to convince the majority of the population.     

Von der Naturgeschichte zur Naturwissenschaft Die Naturwissenschaften als eigenes Fachgebiet an der Universität Jena

Since 1790, the term Naturwissenschaften occurs in the lecture lists of the University of Jena published in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung of Jena. Naturwissenschaften is used as a title for lectures previously listed under the headings of Philosophie or Naturgeschichte. The introduction of the concept of Naturwissenschaften is interesting for several reasons: Firstly, at that time it is not the usual label in this context, and one therefore has to ask whether it already implies the connotations that are associated with the modern concept of Naturwissenschaften, i. e. science in the modern sense. Secondly, the lecture lists of the University of Jena give insight into the various changes in the established ordering scheme for academic lectures that lead to the introduction of the term Naturwissenschaften, thus contributing to a better understanding of both the history of this concept and of the development of the university faculties as we know them. A close look at the concept of Naturwissenschaften as it was used around 1800 may, thirdly, help to understand the use made of this concept in philosophy, especially in the philosophy of nature of this period.     

Wisse die Wege! Hildegard von Bingen zum 900. Geburtstag

Hildegard is regarded as one of the most important women of the Middle Ages. Her contemporaries from all over the world wrote letters to her searching for help and prayer. Universally working she wrote works about medicine, natural history, compositions of chants for the honour of God and his creation and more than three hundred letters to people all over the world including the popes and the emperor. Hildegard's work and the way she understood herself were strongly marked by vision and prophecy. Her works were of divine origin by vision and audition. Her aim was the religious interpretation of the whole universe and a Christian life in the sense of the bible. Heaven and earth, faith and natural science, medicine and religion, the human existence in all its facts and potentials, everything was a mirror of divine love to her. In her first work Scivias ("Know the Ways") she is considering on the history of creation and salvation, from the origin of the world and of man over Christ's salvation to the fulfillment at the end of times. In the centre is standing the human being as microcosm reflecting the whole world in all conditions and laws. Man is the main work of god, reflecting in his doing and thinking God's love. Man has to know the ways that means to live the life of love in all consequences including reproduction by creating a new human being for the praise of God.     

Aus Österreich emigrierte Sozialwissenschaftler. Überblick und Stand der Forschung

The article presents an general view over the enforced migration of Austrian social scientists after 1933. The author argues that the Austrian case is a specific one: first in consequence of the two successive dictatorships, second because of the devastating consequences of the emigration movement for the Austrian scientific community and culture. Only a few of the refugees returned to Austria after 1945. Further could be demonstrated that the Austrian refugees were quickly promoted in the scientific world of their exile countries, by way of comparison — especially in the United States.     

Die erste Entlassungswelle von Hochschullehrern deutscher Hochschulen aufgrund des Gesetzes zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums vom 7.4.1933

On 7 April 1933 the statute ?Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums”? authorized German universities to dismiss staff because of race and/or politics. At the end of 1934 the Ministry of Science, Arts and National Education demanded lists of university teachers, who had to leave the universities as a consequence of the above law. The present lists fully compile the universities in Germany in 1934.     

Der Kampf gegen den „Schwarzen Tod”︁. Quarantäne und Epidemiebekämpfung der frühen Neuzeit im Mittelmeer aufgezeigt am Beispiel Maltas

During early modern period Mediterranean people feared epidemics far more than war and other destructive activities. Where epidemics, especially the plague, struck, all communications broke down and trade just withered away. With the coming of the Knights of St. John in 1530 the Maltese Islands became increasingly important as an international boarding place in the very center of the Mediterranean. Soon the maritime development of the Order's State was enhanced by the high regard in which the Maltese Quarantine System was held by European countries in the 17th and 18th century. The aetiology of plague was then unknown and the restrictive measures adopted by the Maltese Quarantine System too were in accordance with the approved epidemiological practices and theories of the time. This article tries to single out the importance of the Maltese Quarantine as a kind of medical “shield” for the southern European countries.     

Das Arabische als Vermittler und Anreger europäischer Wissenschaftssprache

The role played by the ‘Arabs’, i. e. the peoples of Arabic-Islamic civilization, in the transmission and development of the sciences — from Antiquity and into medieval Europe — is well known. In the present contribution it is discussed in which way the ‘Arabs’ formed their own scientific terminology and in which way they contributed to the formation and development of the Western, European scientific terminology. In the translations of scientific works from Arabic into Latin in the middle ages, mainly four ways of rendering the Arabic terminology are observed: simple transliteration; modified Latinized transliteration; literal translation; and free rendering by newly formed or inherited Latin or Greek terms. In the course of time, transliterated Arabic terms were more and more suppressed — though many of them live on among us until today — and supplied by corresponding Western terminology.