The main aim of the introductory paper is to present the scope and objectives of all essays presented  in the volume. We also examine the major theme of that issue of “Medycyna Nowożytna” and survey similarities and differences between early modern medicine, natural history and philosophy of nature in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Persecution of Jews from the beginning of the 15th century and the need for emigration did not create conditions favorable to the intellectual development of Jewish communities. However, the movement caused by them and the creation of intellectual contacts with the non-Jewish community resulted in a partial depressurization of the Jewish intellectual and scientifi c community. As a result of signaled processes, Jewish thought began to take on an increasingly eclectic and universal character. Some Jewish thinkers were convinced that the philosophy of nature and the emerging science (and medicine in particular) is independent of the religious worldview in the sense that it provides universal knowledge about nature and its regularities. However, some representatives of Jewish thought at the time recognized this “insensitivity” of modern science to religious differences as a basis for discrediting medicine and other fi elds of science, not because they are false or ineffective, but because they only concern matter and empiricism with their interest and methodology. Analysis of the views of representatives of Jewish thought from the 16th and 17th centuries, such as: Judah Loew, David Gans, Joseph Solomon Delmedigo and Tobias Cohn, allows to show their scientific and philosophical activity as a tool for realizing non-scientifi c goals, which were: rapprochement and dialogue with representatives of non-Jewish backgrounds in order to prevent mutual hostility, gain the respect and recognition of the then social elite, protect Jewish communities from further persecution. Finally, the idea was to make the Jews remain in the sphere of religious beliefs and cultural traditions while avoiding harmful intellectual and social isolation on the part of the Christian community and to co-create the scientifi c climate of modern Europe. The developing science was, in the intention of mentioned researchers, to be a tool and at the same time a place for the fulfi llment of this ideal. 

Michael Sendivogius, the Polish author of highly infl uential early modern alchemical treatises, is usually perceived as a typical chrysopoeian rather than a physician. Indeed, in his published texts he hardly mentioned medical applications of alchemy. There are, however, numerous scattered sources which testify to his medical practice and miraculous cures, witnessed by such well known physicians as Oswald Croll. The surviving Sendivogius’s personal copy of Pharmacopoeia Augustana suggests he was well versed in the traditional Galenist pharmacy. The power of his elixir for prolongation of life was widely discussed and its chemical composition is hypothetically identifi ed in the present paper. 

In Stoic philosophy, the term ‘palingenesis’ represents the cyclical rebirth of the world after the universal confl agration. Over the centuries, it has also received alchemical and naturalistic interpretations. The 18th-century Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet, in his Palingénésie philosophique (1769) reinterprets ‘palingenesis’, employing Leibnizian metaphysics as well as the results of his own research on living organisms. In his view, ‘palingenesis’ can be used to present the development of species on the ladder of beings, thus becoming a synonym for the concept of specifi cally understood evolution. 

This paper the role of worldview factors in shaping a different picture of the world in the thoughts of Galileo and J. Kepler. Both scholars, acknowledging the high status of mathematics, differently assessed the opportunities it offers in exploring the world. The reason for this can be seen in the different assumptions of worldviews, despite the fact, that they claimed that nature should be examined independently of theological doctrines. The scholars not only created a specific image of the world, but also interpreted it in the relation to God. They both accepted the activity of God’s omnipotence in the world, but they understood it differently. This paper also refers to conception of theological voluntarism and intellectualism and their cognitive consequences mentioned in the literature. 

Public health shows the tendency to extend beyond the limitations of scientific knowledge and is increasingly becoming an ideology. The basis of this ideology was formed in the 17th century by such precursors as René Descartes, John Amos Comenius, John Locke and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Descartes’ vision of the world and his innovative methodology enabled the development of medicine as a science; he also set the direction into which the contemporary ideology of public health would develop. Comenius is a precursor of the concept of general prohealth  education, which is an important element of the ideology of public health. Locke introduced the idea of a civil society in which an individual is conscious of his/her own pro-health duties as well as his/her duties regarding the community s/he lives in. Therefore he can be considered as a precursor of the modern idea of the medicalization of society. Leibniz sketched a project of a holistic health care system to be implemented by the state to take care of both the individual and the community s/he lives in. The system was to include therapeutic care, pro-health education and the organization of health prevention treatment. Leibniz can thus be regarded as a precursor of creating medicalized society, i.e. one in which activities which are considered to have pro-health functions are imposed on individuals by persuasive and legal measures.

The Swiss scholar, Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777), when proposing a new model of physiology as an empirical science, not a speculative one, has turned to the already established anatomical methodology, thus giving rise to the anatomia animata – animated anatomy. The subject of this study is to determine the place that the hallerian anatomia animata took in relation to the anatomia vivorum and theoretical physiology as well as later experimental physiology. 

Hospital interiors were presented in paintings for the fi rst time in modern art in 1549, namely by Jacopo Robusti also known as Tintoretto. The painting St Roch in the Hospital is still hanging in the presbytery of the Saint Roch church in Venice. Contemporary historiography has determined that this innovative iconography of representation constituted a direct reference to efforts of the Confraternity Scuola Grande di San Rocco Rocco to have a hospice established. The goal of this paper is to connect the presence of oriental fi gures on the painting with the public debate between the members of the confraternity and physicians at the same time – Valerio Superchio and Vittore Trincavello. 

This paper discusses the attitudes towards chymistry and iatrochemistry presented by Szczecin’s first professors of medicine, Georg Kirstenius and Johann Zander. They had similar academic backgrounds, but their opinions on chymistry differed. Kirstenius was appalled by chymistry’s dialect, with its baffl ing neologisms and idioms. He rejected both theoretical background and therapeutic methods of iatrochemistry, and showed no interest in performing chymical experiments. However, he was well acquainted with works by Hoffman, Billich, and Sennert. Zander was a profi cient user of chymical language, and seems to have had substantial practical experience in experimental chymistry. This enabled him to expose a local impostor who advertised antimony- and mercury-based preparations as panacea made of gold. Zander, however, was no follower of Paracelsian natural philosophy; particularly, he did not accept the concept of tria prima.

The study is based on three sources which are the books of miracles of Bernard of Wąbrzeźno, archbishop Bogumił, and the Blessed Virgin Mary of Rokitno. The analysis revealed that the aforementioned books of miracles were not an arena of confl ict. The Heavenly Healers in the books proved to be almost absolutely effective – this is a matter of course due to the specific nature of the books which are composed of certifi ed miracles. The recorded helplessness of barber surgeons as well as ineffectiveness of recommended treatments served not so much to show intentional depreciation of this group but rather to indicate the Providence, which offered its help in every helpless situation. 

In the 18th century, many maternity handbooks were created in the Polish Commonwealth, mainly for women. These were not original works, but rather translations or borrowings from Western European tractates. However, their authors had to solve the problem of lacking obstetric terms in the Polish language. Many expressions of the female parts were considered indecent, and the textbooks were considered inappropriate for women. The fi rst author who undertook the task of using maternity terminology was Jakub Kostrzewski. In his works, many expressions were repeated (macica/uterus, płód/fetus, miednica/pelvis) after precursor from 16th century, but some were just forming, such as pochwa/vulva, łechtaczka/ clitoris, jajowody/fallopian tubes. The maternity terminology was floating and occurred different forms in individual authors. Other authors of the textbooks were: Raphael Steidele, Jan Różański, Józef Berger de Lonchamps, Ludwik Perzyna and Jakub Felix de Michelis. This article is based mainly of sources from 18th century. 

The paper presents ceramic and glass containers for medicaments dated from the second half of the 16th to the 18th century, excavated in selected areas of Gdańsk. The authors have attempted to clarify the chronology of these products and their interpretation in the context of historical and iconographic sources. The presented results are preliminary, due to the fact that research on the subject matter is not advanced, and the small size of the analyzed collection are of contributory nature. As the fi nal conclusions aspects of everyday life associated with the production and use of ointments and their packaging and distribution in Gdansk in the postmedieval period were emphasized on the basis of interdisciplinary studies.