Questioning Medicine in Seventeenth-Century Rome: The Consultations of Paolo Zacchia

Abstract

Abstract. This paper surveys the life and contributions of Paolo Zacchia (1584-1659) before analyzing 85 Latin consilia (or consultations) in his Quaestiones medico-legales. Topics include death, paternity, sexuality, disease, and miracles. Because the consilia cite the rest of his treatise, they open the entire work, elucidating applications of theory. This research relied on the construction of a database, built on subject, date, and citations. The paper closes with historiographic suggestions for why this prominent author has been ignored in North America.Keywords. medical jurisprudence, religion, law, history of medicine, 17th century Résumé. Cet article présente la vie et la contribution de Paolo Zacchia (1585-1659) pour ensuite analyser 85 consilia (ou consultations) tirées de son Quaestiones medico-legales. La mort, la paternité, la sexualité, la maladie et les miracles comptent parmi les sujets traités. Parce qu'elles citent la reste du texte, ces consilia illustrent l'oeuvre entière et fournissent des exemples de mise en oeuvre de sa théorie. Cette recherche s'appuie sur l'élaboration d'une base de données recensant les thématiques concernées, les dates et des citations. Cet article conclut sur des interprétations historiographiques expliquant pourquoi cet auteur majeur a été ignoré en Amérique du Nord.

Islam, mental health and law: a general overview

“…This step consolidated the importance of the physicians’ expert opinion in different legal cases, thus paving the way for the establishment of forensic medicine and psychiatry. Zacchias has studied medicine and law at the Sapienza, became chief doctor of the Papal States, and he was advisor to the Rota Romana, the supreme Papal court of appeals [65]. He was the personal doctor of two Popes: Innocent X (1644-55) and Alexander VII (1655-67) [66].…”

“…His most famous work was the Quaestiones medico-legales that consisted of nine libri and was published between 1621 and 1651. Although many historians and researchers cauterized and criticized him for endorsing tortures, suppression of women, belief in witchcraft, daemonology, and miracles, his work opened the way for medicine to establish a much upgraded status quo, not only in relation with legal science but generally in the human society [64, 65]. It is very interesting, from a historical, ethical, and sociopolitical point of view, to realize that a lot of prominent scientific figures that contributed to the beginning of the end of religious fanaticism came from ecclesiastical circles.…”

A case of macrosomia and macroglossia, likely Beckwith‐Wiedemann syndrome from 1628

“…Zacchia's work added scientific basis to the legal practice and court system. His most well‐known book, Quaestiones medico‐legales (1621–1651), established legal medicine as a topic of study and included this and other descriptions of patients with rare and interesting findings (Duffin, 2011; Handel, 2003; Kornfeld, 1885).…”

Epistemologies of Touch in Early Modern Holy Autopsies

“…113 Pomata, 2007, 582n75. For more information about Zacchia, an expert summoned in several canonization processes and author of a foundational text for the development of forensic medicine (Quaestionum Medico-Legalium [1661]), see Bouley, 96-100, 78-79, 88-89;Duffin, 2011;Pastore and Rossi. and interplayed with one another, making touch a relational sense endowed with medical and religious power. To determine whether or not a corpse was incorrupt, physicians needed to touch and palp the corpse, feel every part and substance, seeking the soft fleshy parts.…”

“… 113 Pomata, 2007, 582n75. For more information about Zacchia, an expert summoned in several canonization processes and author of a foundational text for the development of forensic medicine ( Quaestionum Medico-Legalium [1661]), see Bouley, 96–100, 78–79, 88–89; De Renzi, 2008; Duffin, 2011; Pastore and Rossi.…”