Disputing Medicine: Medical Dissertations at the Academy of Turku (1640–1828)

The early modern period witnessed the gradual emergence of the unified field known today as science. The primary linguistic medium of all educated communication was Latin.

Accordingly, Latin played a crucial role in how new scientific ideas were advanced and transmitted in (early) modern Europe. One of the most central – yet most neglected – literary forms employed to this end was the dissertation.

Over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, what was originally a collection of orally defended theses evolved into a self-sufficient piece of research. However, this transformation still lacks a systematic diachronic analysis and seems to be understood only broadly.

Focusing on a corpus of medical dissertations published at the Royal Academy of Turku (Finland) between 1640 and 1828, MedDis action aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of this crucial process in the history of Western science.

To this end, the ER will first transcribe the corpus into an easily searchable database with the aid of Trankribus software; second, he will examine the history of medical education at the Academy of Turku; and, third, he will investigate the evolution of the genre at the Academy of Turku in its wider European context.

Combining digital tools with more traditional philological methods, the action will yield completely new information on how the dissertation transformed from its early modern to its modern form and function. The ER has expertise in Neo-Latin, intellectual history and digital humanities.

The action will take place at the Department of Classical Philology and Neo-Latin Studies at the University of Innsbruck.

Home to the ERC project 'Nova Scientia: Early Modern Scientific Literature and Latin' (NOSCEMUS) and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin studies, the host institution is the best place in the world to carry out this action. The knowledge and training received during this action will contribute significantly to the ER’s career prospects.