Giovanni Manardo (also known as Manardi or Mainardi; Latin: Iohannes Manardus; 24 July 1462 – 8 March 1536[1]) was an Italian
physician,
botanist, and
humanist.
In 1494, on the death of
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Manardo oversaw the publication of his Disputationes adversum Astrologiam divinatricem, in which the philosopher criticized astrological beliefs and practices, marking a clear distinction between astronomy (mathematical or speculative astrology), which studied the harmonic reality of the universe, and astrology (judicial or divining astrology), which supposedly revealed the future of men according to astral conjunctures. Manardo also participated in debates on
syphilis, particularly in Ferrara and
Leipzig, where he wrote a pamphlet entitled De erroribus Symonis Pistoris de Lypczk circa morbum gallicum, published in 1500 in
Nuremberg.[4]
While Manardo had already shown his ability to apply philological principles to medical science in his commentary on
Galen's Ars Parva, his humanist erudition was evidenced especially in his Epistolae Medicinales[5] which started to be released in bits and pieces starting in 1528, but which was not fully published until after his death in
Basel in 1540, after which it went through numerous posthumous editions.
The Epistolae combined the traditions of councils, forums and philological discussions about medicine and botany to the field of pharmacological terminology.[6] The Epistolae, besides criticizing the botanical knowledge informed by
Arabic medicine, described the
anthers of flowers (belonging to the
angiosperms) for the first time, and had a particular influence on
François Rabelais who republished it in
Lyon, because he saw in Manardo's work both a useful contribution to restoring medicine to the prestige it had once enjoyed in antiquity, as well as being an authoritative voice underlying the renewal of culture.[7]
^
abMargherita Palumbo nel Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vedi Bibliografia, indica nel 7 marzo il giorno del decesso: "Afflitto dalla podagra e dalla nefrite, il M. morì a Ferrara il 7 marzo 1536".
^D. Mugnai-Carrara, Epistemological problems in Giovanni Mainardi's Commentary on Galen's Ars Parva, in A. Grafton - N.G. Siraisi (ed.), Natural Particulars. Nature and the disciplines in Renaissance Europe,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 1999, p. 254.
^R. Scalamandrè, Rabelais, ilPolifiloe la botanica, in Idem, Rabelais e Folengo e altri studi sulla letteratura francese del '500, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, Roma 1998, p. 27.
"Atti del convegno internazionale per la celebrazione del V centenario della nascita di Giovanni Manardo, 1462-1536" (
Ferrara, 8–9 December 1962),
University of Ferrara, 1963.
D. Mugnai-Carrara, Epistemological problems in Giovanni Mainardi's Commentary on Galen's Ars Parva, in A. Grafton & N.G. Siraisi (ed.), Natural Particulars. Nature and the disciplines in Renaissance Europe,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 1999, pp. 251–274.
M. Palumbo, "
MANARDI (Manardo), Giovanni", in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 68, Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2007.
P. Zambelli, Giovanni Mainardi e la polemica sull'astrologia, in L'opera e il pensiero di
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola nella storia dell'umanesimo, Atti del convegno internazionale (
Mirandola, 15–18 September 1963), vol. II,
Florence, 1965, pp. 205–279.