How to Impart Knowledge, Experience and Common Sense: Exempla ficta in Early Modern Surgery
Résumé
This article deals with exempla ficta in pre- modern surgery. As a scholastic form of teaching, stylised stereotypic histories were yet another way in which surgeons bridged the gap between general doctrines and individual cases in transmitting knowledge, experience and moral advice. Their revival in the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly in Italy, reflects the improvement and standardization of surgical education, especially in hospitals. Lecturers, who were mostly university- trained, drew inspiration from academic pedagogical techniques to transform informal tutoring into proper courses of practical surgery on “cases”. Despite being a subgenre with didactic purposes, imaginary patients’ histories feature a peculiar mix of learning and empiricism, with specific writing techniques and topoi that reflect the ascending social status of surgeons.