Key words : History of nephrology, History of science, Kidney disease, Kidney stones

The Academia Filosofica of Jeronimo Ruscelli

The scenario of scientific revolution was charac-terized by the development of new institutions and scholarly movements. Several organizations with scientific purposes contributed to promote knowledge and science, such as the princely court and the informal academies. These institutions were partially in opposition to the Aristotelianism and the conventional education, countering the primacy of the universities for the dissemination of scientific culture.

The literati of these informal academies shared similar interests and developed these institutions, often under the patronage of princely courts, to promote experimental research.¹ These academies supported the idea of scientific cooperation and became centers for the dissemination of scientific information, whether through informal correspon-dence or the promotion of scientific publications.

One of the first such societies was the Academia Filosofica, founded by Jeronimo Ruscelli. He was a highly acclaimed humanist of the sixteenth century; because of his varied interests, he was called a “poligraph,” an author who wrote in different fields.

Jeronimo Ruscelli was born in Viterbo between 1504 and 1518 (he came from a family described in various sources as being of humble origin, of minor nobility, or of notaries). He later moved to Aquileia, Padua, and Rome, where he married Virginia Panarelli, sister of Teofilo Panarelli, a doctor with Protestant sympathies who was hanged and burned in Rome in 1572.

After Rome, he went to Naples and finally, in 1548, to Venice, where he remained until his death (1566). At a young age, he developed a keen interest in classical studies and attended the court of Cardinal Marini Grimani at Utini. After completing his studies at the University of Padua, he contributed to the founding of a humanist academy, the Scornful Academy (Accademia degli Sdegnati) in Rome. It included rare sources, a prince, various secretaries, and the honorable society of the noble Scornum.²

The New Secrets of Jeronimo Ruscelli

The Secrets represents the masterpiece of Jeronimo Ruscelli. This book was first published in 1555, with an immediate and extraordinary popular success; a few years after its publication, the book was translated into Latin, French, English, Dutch, and German. It included 350 recipes for alchemical and medical compounds.³

Within 15 years its 4 parts were published in 50 editions, and by the end of the seventeenth century more than 90 editions had appeared in virtually every Western European language.

The New Secrets was published in 1567, after Ruscelli’s death. In this book, Ruscelli added more secrets and a total of 50 recipes for renal diseases. The preface to the New Secrets has an important historical documentary value, as it is an organic testimony to the existence of an academy of a mainly alchemical character in the Kingdom of Naples in the middle of the sixteenth century. The description shows a very fertile and well-identifiable intellectual environment. It contains a detailed account of the formation and organization of an academy or society for scientific and experimental research.⁴

Ruscelli reports that the Philosophical Society was founded when he lived in the Kingdom of Naples, some years before he went to Venice, in a “famous city” whose name he does not give, in a company of 24 persons of rank, together with the lord of the district.

The author gives us details of the original 24 members (7 from Naples, 7 from various cities in Italy, 7 beyond the mountains, 1 slave, 1 Greek, and 1 Iberian from Salonicco) who, together with 3 other members, formed the mystical number of 27. He describes meticulously their social position, nationality, income, and the contributions they each paid into the society’s coffers. In all, the society could usually raise 5000 gold crowns (scudi) a year. He also describes the various employees of this “Academia”: 2 apothecaries or druggists, 2 goldsmiths, 2 perfumers, 1 painter, and 4 herbalists, all of whom were employed at the Society’s expense with reasonable salaries.

There were also 2 classes of servants: those who looked after the affairs of the house and everything connected with the daily life of the community, and those who were engaged exclusively in the work of the “filosofia,” as it was called, such as carrying water, pounding, building ovens, tending fires, vessels, and lutes, and all other tasks connected with the experimental operations.

On the first Sunday of each month, a meeting of the entire staff was held to report on everything that had happened since the previous meeting. First and foremost, it was a matter of studying and researching natural phenomena to get to know these better. In addition, there was the application of the knowledge thus acquired in medicine and the arts necessary for human needs.

The members wanted to teach themselves to benefit the world at large by bringing to certainty and true knowledge useful and important secrets for all kinds and conditions of people: rich and poor, learned and unlearned, men and women, old and young.

Thus, for some years, they continued to inquire ceaselessly into mysteries, whether these were mentioned in printed books or in old or new collections of manuscripts. In the preface of the New Secrets, Ruscelli describes a place (the court) “where we often met and discussed what we did daily, and here I collected all the secrets I published some years ago, which in truth were all collected in the said academy and tried and found out by our successful society.” He concludes this preface by saying that he published his collection according to the rules of the Academy with the obligatory permission of the “Principe” and his collaborators.

The organization and methods of the Academy are a great demonstration of cooperation between craftsmen and scholars, a fruitful example of a culture of knowledge sharing. The dissemination of these recipes also helped to improve the self-reliance and self-care of readers, contributing to promote a more accessible science and the progression of the scientific revolution.

Management of Kidney Diseases as Described in the New Secrets

In the New Secrets, the author reports a relevant number of “Secreti” with a total of 1024 medical prescriptions, including 50 prescriptions for the treatment of kidney diseases. The kidney prescriptions were divided as follows: 50% included kidney stones and renal colic, 24% anuria, and the remaining 26% were for functional symptoms such as urinary incontinence, polyuria, and stranguria.

Among these recipes, he describes the “Treatment for those who cannot urinate.” Ruscelli suggest, “Take four or six stalks of leek and fry them in scorpion oil, pound them, make a poultice and place it, as warm as possible, on the loins of the one who cannot urinate; he will urinate in a short time. The beards and hairs of the leek have the same effect: you must dry them and drink them as a powder with white wine. They will bring out the grains and make the stones small, which will not be very large.”

He describes also how to contrast the polyuria in his recipe “Treatment for those who suffer from polyuria.” He writes, “Use tender tips of leaves of oak twigs and boil them in red wine; crush them and make a poultice of them. Then place them at a high temperature on the penis of the one suffering from an altered strong flow of urine; in short, he will get rid of it.”

Another topic of interest was the treatment of renal calculi. In the recipe “How to dissolve kidney stones” he suggests, “Take a small portion of skin and hare’s blood and boil it in a saucepan so that it burns sufficiently, then make it into powder and give it to the patient to drink with lukewarm water. He will benefit from this treatment and the stone will dissolve.” All prescriptions reported by the author were accepted if they were tried in the presence of academy members and positive results were obtained in at least 3 patients.

Ruscelli said of his scientific method of research, “I have learned many good secrets, not only from men of great knowledge and deep learning and from nobles, but also from poor, illiterate artisans, peasants and all kinds of people. Moreover, I have been three times to the Levant and several times to almost all other parts of the world.”

These words testify to Ruscelli’s wide-ranging interests and the great contribution to knowledge made by his experience and spirit of collaboration.

Conclusions

The sixteenth century was a flourishing time of scientific progress and academic activity. During these years of intense research interest, several academic organizations were founded. Among these societies, the Academia Filosofica founded by Jeronimo Ruscelli is one of the earliest examples. Ruscelli’s description of the Academy reflects genuine and relevant sixteenth century ideals about the organization and aims of scientific research.

The Secreti Novi represents a valuable contribution to a better understanding of the scientific literature of the time and the advances that led to the modern scientific method.

References:

1. Eamon W, Paheau F. The Accademia Segreta of Girolamo Ruscelli. A sixteenth-century Italian scientific society. Isis. 1984;75(277):327-342.
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2. Ferguson J. The Secrets of Alexis. A Sixteenth Century Collection of Medical and Technical Receipts. Proc R Soc Med. 1930;24(2):225-246.
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3. Ruscelli G. The Secrets of Alexis. Venice; 1555.
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4. Ruscelli G. Secreti nuovi di Maravigliosa Virtù del signor Jeronimo Ruscelli. Venice; 1567.
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