Sharing Cases: The Observationes in Early Modern Medicine

Abstract

This paper examines the rise of an epistemic genre, the Observationes, a new form of medical writing that emerged in Renaissance humanistic medicine. The Observationes (collections of case-histories) originated in the second half of the sixteenth century, grew rapidly over the course of the seventeenth, and had become a primary form of medical writing by the eighteenth century. The genre developed initially as a form of self-advertisement by court and town physicians, who stressed success in practice, over and above academic learning, as a core element of their professional identity. This unprecedented emphasis on practice as a source of knowledge remained a key feature of the Observationes in its subsequent development. As the genre evolved, the original emphasis on therapeutic success gave way to a new focus on the descriptive knowledge of disease through detailed observation. The authorial identity projected by the writers of Observationes was increasingly that of the learned and experienced observer, bent on comparing notes and sharing his cases with the fellow members of the res publica medica. This paper charts the development of the genre, examining how its growth contributed to the new epistemological value of observation in the age of the Scientific Revolution.

The Roots and Ramifications of Narrative in Modern Medicine

“…Clinical casebooks and compendia mingled elements from earlier with those of later observations, the patient's medical history being recounted in terms of precepts and doctrines that did not necessarily distinguish between fi rst-and second-hand observations and commentary. 30 Only when such compendia were made accessible through indexing, which required rearrangement of contents according to keywords, did the details of similar types of case come to be clustered together, making possible comparisons between cases isolable from each other and from background information. 31 Building on links between news and narrative, eighteenth-century case reports began to be published as free-standing accounts of medical fi ndings, instances of special interest titled 'a narrative' 32 sometimes written in tones referencing an account of a life.…”

The Structures of Practical Knowledge

“…However, throughout the book and on the title page, Kunckel emphasizes that he offers "Anmerckungen" and "Observationen," terminology already used by Merrett to refer to his comments on Neri. Merrett and Kunckel might have had the epistemic genre of medical observationes in mind (Pomata 2010(Pomata , 2011. This genre consisted of collections of case histories, and emerged in the sixteenth century from another typical humanist genre, the curationes.…”

Physicians’ Loci communes. Forms and Functions of Medical Commonplacing in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

“…Nach Krankheitsbegriffen geordnete oder zumindest mit entsprechenden Krankheitsbegriffen überschriebene medizinische Observationes oder Consilia, die einzelne Krankengeschichten entsprechend versammelten, erschienen -offenbar gegründet auf die handschriftliche Aufzeichnung von Fällen aus der eigenen ärztlichen Praxis -auch in wachsender Zahl im Druck und erreichten eine breitere Ö ffentlichkeit (Stolberg 2007, Pomata 2010 …”