Giovan Battista Codronchi’s De morbis Veneficis ac Veneficiis (1595). Medicine, Exorcism and Inquisition in Counter-Reformation Italy

Fabiana Ambrosi

doi:10.3390/rel10110612

Abstract

The physician Giovan Battista Codronchi (1547–1628) is a key figure of sixteenth-century medicine. A study of his main work De morbis veneficis ac veneficiis (1595) and his letters sent to the Congregation of the Index in Rome (1597) can teach us much about the interrelation between medicine and religion in Counter-Reformation Italy. Using Codronchi as a prism, this article uncovers a complex picture in which themes such as the production of demonological texts at the height of the European witch-hunt, the related debate about the roles of physicians and exorcists, and the influence of physicians on the development of the Index of Forbidden Books are interrelated.

Highlights

The physician Giovan Battista Codronchi (1547–1628) is a key figure of sixteenth-century medicine
Codronchi described the text as an accidental result of his reflections on the diabolical illness that struck his daughter Francesca, it represented a crucial step taken by Codronchi in order to participate in the religious policies of the Catholic Church
Codronchi had been nominated to the commission appointed to oversee the establishment of the Jesuit college in Imola (1581). Together with his brother Tiberio, Codronchi was a key figure in the project. (Ferri 1997, p. 37) when a medical meeting was assembled in Imola in 1591 in order to discuss how to deal with the plague, Codronchi was absent due to health reasons

Summary

Introduction

The physician Giovan Battista Codronchi (1547–1628) is a key figure of sixteenth-century medicine. Codronchi’s De morbis veneficis represents a major contribution by a physician to the early modern demonological debate.

Results

Conclusion