Historical knowledge and translation: notes for a study by De Contagione (1546), by Girolamo Fracastoro

Abstract

The fight against diseases and other forms of physical illnesses, often incomprehensible and inevitable, is intertwined with the history of humanity itself. Since the first civilizations, all the knowledge acquired was also transmitted through translation. This study focuses on the intersection between translation, historical knowledge, pandemic and “normal”, aims to bring the experience of the doctor, poet, astronomer and philosopher Girolamo Fracastoro (Verona, 1476/1478 – Incaffi, 1553), with the purpose of discussing some notes on his worldview regarding specifically the contagion of diseases, present in book I of his treatise De contagione et contagiosis morbis et curatione [On contagion, contagious diseases and their treatment], published in Italy in 1546 and considered the author’s most celebrated work, the product of his maturity, which gave him the title of father of modern pathology. Although there is still the influence of medicine from previous periods, in the century of Fracastoro there are also notable developments in studies on the human body, which was beginning to be better understood because of the anatomical studies resulting from the dissection of cadavers. it is important to consider that, according to humanistic knowledge, being a doctor also implies being a philosopher, that is, seeking knowledge of the phenomena not in metaphysics, nor in generalities, but in the observation of the natural environment. In the first part, the text is contextualized, includes biographical elements of the author and the medical knowledge of the period, and in the second part Fracastoro’s main ideas about the contagion of diseases are presented. Finally, some considerations are made about historical knowledge, translation and the history of medicine and diseases, thought at the specific moment of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic.