Can Mixtures Be Identified by Touch? The Reception of Galen’s De complexionibus in Italian Renaissance Medicine

Abstract

This article uses Galen’s De complexionibus and its reception as a thread to examine the part played by the sense of touch in the assessment of bodily mixtures. According to Galen, complexions were assessed by touching patients with the skin of the palm of the hand because it is “at the precise midpoint between all the extremes” and, thus, well-mixed. This article examines how this extraordinary claim about the discriminative power of touch was received from the late Middle Ages up to the early modern period, with a special focus on Renaissance thought. By following Galen’s text and its various forms and appropriations, the aim is to illuminate the fluid understanding of the Galenic notion of ‘complexion’ (complexio) in relation to changing epistemologies of touch in Renaissance medicine, notably by shedding light on the anatomical concept of ‘substance’ (substantia).