Dr. Jeremy Wasser

What was it like to be a patient during the Renaissance? Or a doctor? What did it mean to be sick at that time, medically or emotionally? How did society view and address those stricken by disease or injury? And how does the art, music, and literature of the Renaissance help us to learn about sickness and healing during this time?
Medical care at the time was heavily influenced by the medieval Church’s religious and spiritual approach to healing. However, with the Renaissance, new empirical and scientific developments around questions of medicine challenged healers and patients to negotiate these conflicting concepts.
This course will provide a selective but detailed review of what was known and believed about how the human body worked in health and disease between the 14th and 17th centuries in Europe. We will also explore how changes in our understanding of the human body from the earlier medieval concepts paved the way for the blossoming of truly modern medicine in the 18th century’s Age of Enlightenment. Join Dr. Jeremy Wasser in learning about the “nature of the body” through representations of health, disease, disfigurement, and death found in the art, music and literature of the Renaissance.

Jeremy Wasser, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Physiology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Wasser serves as the program leader for study abroad programs in Germany, focused on the history of medicine, providing future doctors and biomedical science researchers with a foundation in physiology and the medical humanities. Along with his scientific publications he has written and lectured on the culture of disease, the history of public health and health policy, the history of human experimentation, and the role of physiological education in contemplative practices. Additionally, Wasser’s training in opera and theatre inform the unique personas that he creates for lectures in the history of medicine and performances related to science and storytelling.

Lecture 1: The medical antecedents of Renaissance medicine: from Antiquity through the Late Middle Ages
The understanding by Renaissance physicians of what Hippocrates, the legendary father of western medicine called “the Nature of the Body,” was derived from earlier concepts dating back to Ancient Greece and Rome and the even earlier civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. This lecture will focus on these ancient concepts and how they became medical canon by the Middle Ages in Europe. Participants will learn about the role of early and medieval Christianity in the development of medical concepts and treatments, illuminating the tension between priests as “physicians of the soul” and medical doctors and other healers as “physicians of the body.”
Archeological and textual sources, as well as works of art, literature and music will illustrate what the people of these civilizations and times believed about how the body worked. These examples will also inform discussion on what defined “sickness” and the implications of those beliefs on the healing practices of doctors and priests.

Lecture 2: The renaissance of Renaissance Medicine: the scientific breakthroughs of Renaissance scholars and physicians and the changes these brought to the practice of medicine
Prior to the Renaissance, most physicians/healers made little distinction between medicine and magic or science and sorcery. The Renaissance saw tremendous advances in direct anatomical studies of humans by physicians and artists/scientists, including Leonardo da Vinci. These served as a basis for challenging the long-held medical dogma of the Ancients. The “secularization” of the practice of medicine and the increased status and power of university-trained physicians also marked this watershed period. Together, these two developments set the stage by the end of the 17th century for the birth of truly modern physiological science and scientific medicine.
This lecture will utilize the extensive medical literature of the period particularly after the invention in the mid-15th century of the printing press, to illustrate this transitional phase between the ancient and the modern. A Zeitreise (time travel journey) will be facilitated by artworks of the great Renaissance masters, as well as lesser known artists, period literature and music. The appreciation of these materials will provide insight into life during this time of intellectual, artistic, and scientific ferment.

Lecture 3: Living and dying at the dawn of scientific medicine: the epitome of medical practice in the Renaissance and what that meant for both doctors and their patients
What would it have been like to be a Renaissance patient? What diseases were prevalent and what were options for relief or cure? The third lecture will explore how newly introduced tools and concepts expanded the role of late 16th and 17th century doctors and surgeons.
Unfortunately for the people of that time there was still a long wait before the development of effective anesthesia and the germ theory and concept of aseptic (sterile) technique (mid-19th century). There were still massive limitations on what physicians were able to actually accomplish for their patients. However, for those who could afford it, real medicine and therapeutic interventions were available.
As always, art, literature, and music will provide the lens to view the medical and scientific landscape of this time, reflecting the changes in society’s understanding of the “Nature of the Body.” Doctors of this period began to focus on health beyond the individual, with an expanded consideration for society as a whole.
Finally, the lecture will cover how the understanding of disease and medicine at the end of the Renaissance set the stage for the birth of modern, scientific medicine during the Age of Enlightenment.

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