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Cultural Approaches to the History of Medicine pp 11–35Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

De Affectibus Cordis et Palpitatione: Secrets of the Heart in Counter-Reformation Italy

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Abstract

‘Where your treasure is, there will be your heart’ (Luke, 12: 34). This text was cited by St Anthony of Padua while performing the funeral rites for a man notorious for his stinginess. Afterwards a surgeon received the order to perform a post-mortem examination, which revealed the disappearance of the heart. It goes without saying that St Anthony knew where it could be found: in the casket where all the other precious objects of the defunct were stored. Pietro Damini (1592–1632) represented the scene on a large panel for the Paduan church of St Canciano. On this, an anatomist is shown opening up the chest surrounded by various onlookers. These include noblemen, saints and monks, but also solemnly clad men in black, who may be doctors of Padua’s medical faculty. Although Damini faithfully followed the story of one of Anthony’s most famous miracles, in his representation he combined saintly veneration with contemporary interest in anatomy. The dead body does not, for example, rest on a bier but on an anatomical table.1 The scene cannot have been uncommon in Padua, where illustrious anatomists such as Fabrizio d’ Acquapendente and Giulio Casseri performed sections in the anatomical theatre at the Palazzo del Bo.

I would like to thank the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Wassenaar for kindly offering me a scholarship in 2001 and giving me the opportunity to write this paper.

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Catrien Santing
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Huizinga Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Willem de Blécourt (historical anthropologist and fellow) (historical anthropologist and fellow)

  2. University of Surrey Roehampton, London, UK

    Cornelie Usborne (Reader in European History) (Reader in European History)

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© 2004 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Santing, C. (2004). De Affectibus Cordis et Palpitatione: Secrets of the Heart in Counter-Reformation Italy. In: de Blécourt, W., Usborne, C. (eds) Cultural Approaches to the History of Medicine. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230287594_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230287594_2

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-51239-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-28759-4

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