Where does it hurt? Ancient medicine in questions and answers
International Conference
Leuven, 30-31 August 2016
The Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe, Janseniusstraat 1, 3000 Leuven
Asking the right questions and obtaining the right answers is vital to modern medical healthcare. It is essential for efficient doctor-patient communication, forming an important component of medical treatment. This was no different in Antiquity. Already the Hippocratic writings give us an idea of which kinds of questions physicians asked in diagnosing their patients, and which answers they received in return. However, one can imagine that patients or, in case of severe illness, their relatives were often incapable of providing an accurate answer to (some of) the doctor’s questions. Galen, for instance, says that certain types of pain are actually felt by patients, but cannot be described by them when asked to. As such, a good doctor had to be able not simply to ask the right questions, but also to look for the right answers himself, if necessary.
The use of question-and-answer (Q&A) formulas is widely attested in ancient medical literature. By employing specific interrogative turns in their discourses, medical authors not only sought to provide practical information for proper treatment of patients, but also to amass theoretical insights about the human body and its physiological and pathological processes more generally. The popularity of the Q&A format is largely due to the fact that it became well-entrenched in the ancient medical school curriculum. Through its dialogical and interrogative structure, it provided teachers and students with a useful method to question and memorize all types of medical knowledge, both practical and theoretical. Once condensed in a textual form, it was also useful in transferring this knowledge between author and reader.
The conference, which brings together scholars of medical history and from related fields, such as classics, literary studies, linguistics, digital humanities, philosophy and psychology, wants to offer a better understanding of this multi-faceted and widely attested phenomenon of questions and answers in ancient medical literature, from the Hippocratic writers to Late Antiquity and its reception in early Byzantine times. ‘Medical literature’ is understood in a broad sense, encompassing not only the highly specialized medical treatises of authors like Galen, but also, i.a., literary sources (esp. drama), collections ofproblèmata, and (anonymous) papyri, which all somehow relate to the world of ancient medicine.
Tuesday 30 August 2016 | Conference day 1
13.30 Registration
14.00 Introduction
14.10 Session 1 – Chair Gerd Van Riel
14.10-14.30: Melinda Letts (Oxford), “Right Question or Good Question? Rufus of Ephesus and the Patient’s Perspective in Medicine”
14.30-14.50: Alessia Guardasole (CNRS Paris), “Hippocratisme et aristotélisme dans un exemple original de la tradition érotapocritique médicale et religieuse byzantine: les Problèmes hippocratiques”
14.50-15.00: Discussion
15.00 Coffee
15.30 Session 2 – Chair Jan Opsomer
15.30-15.50: Salvatore Di Piazza (Palermo & ULB), “Diagnosis in Corpus Hippocraticum: Trust, Words, Signs”
15.50-16.10: Luca Gili (KU Leuven), “Erotetic Logic and Syllogistic. Galenian and Alexandrian Approaches to Medicine”
16.10-16.30: Michiel Meeusen (KU Leuven), “Ps.-Alexander of Aphrodisias on Unsayable Properties inMedical Puzzles”
16.30-16.45: Discussion
17.30 Keynote lecture in collaboration with LECTIO by
Robert Mayhew (Seton Hall), “Peripatetic and Hippocratic Seeds in Problemata 4: Raising Questions about Aristotle’s Rejection of the Pangenesis Theory of Generation”
19.00 Conference dinner
Wednesday 31 August 2016 | Conference day 2
10.00 Session 3 – Chair Michiel Meeusen
10.00-10.20: Elizabeth Cooper (Newcastle), “Phaedra’s Physician: Medical Questions and Answers in Euripides’ Hippolytus”
10.20-10.40: Andrés Pelavski (Cambridge), “Questioning the Obvious”
10.40-11.00: Ido Israelowich (Tel Aviv), “Diagnosing Madness during the High Roman Empire: Questions and Answers as a Diagnostic Method”
11.00-11.15: Discussion
11.15 Coffee
11.45 Session 4 – Chair Marie-Hélène Marganne
11.45-12.05: Antonio Ricciardetto (Liège & Paris), “La réponse du médecin : les rapports d’inspection médicale écrits en grec sur papyrus (Ier-IVe s. apr. J.-C.)”
12.05-12.25: Isabella Bonati (Parma), “Definitions and Technical Terminology in the Erôtapokriseis on papyrus”
12.25-12.45: Nicola Reggiani (Parma), “Digitizing Medical Papyri in Question-and-Answer Format”
12.45-13.00: Discussion
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Session 5 – Chair Erika Gielen
14.00-14.20: Ioannis Papadogiannakis (London), “Ps. Justin’s Quaestiones et responsiones ad orthodoxos and the Literature of Medical-Philosophical προβλήματα”
14.20-14.40: Serena Buzzi & Fosca Pescia (Turin), “The Questions in Oribasius’s Medical Texts”
14.40-15.00: Laura Mareri (Macerata), “The Use of Q&A Formula in Alexander of Tralles”
15.00-15.15: Discussion
15.15 Concluding Remarks
Scientific and organizing committees
Pieter De Leemans (Leuven), Kristoffel Demoen (Gent), Erika Gielen (Leuven), Jan Godderis (Leuven), Christian Laes(Antwerpen), Marie-Hélène Marganne (Luik), Robert Mayhew (Seton Hall), Michiel Meeusen (Leuven), Jan Opsomer(Leuven), Luc Van der Stockt (Leuven), Gerd Van Riel (Leuven)
Participation is free, but registration is required via Erika.Gielen@kuleuven.be or Michiel.Meeusen@kuleuven.be before 22 August 2016.
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