Avicenna in Renaissance Italy (review)

152 Reviews implications of these views. Sears states in the Introduction that the theme of the ages of man was a 'bookish' one and that 'No one ever died before seventy, no matter what life expectancy might have been in the society at large'. But surely some discussion might have been included about the redity of the life cycle in the medievd west. When did people redly die? W h y was so little attention paid to conelating image with reality? Sotittlehas been written about medievd views of childhood and much of that, such as PhiUipe Aries Centuries of Childhood, is dependent to some extent on the image of children in the ages of man literature and iconography. What truth, if any, is contained in medievd images of children at play, old people by thefire,women attending to their spindles or men anxiously accumulating possessions? Sears addresses little of this. There is dso a lack of attention to chronologicd changes in the theme of the ages of man; although the image of old age, with its association with Saturn, seems to become more frightening in the later medievd examples. What links are there between these images of approaching death, senility and decrepitude and others associated with the Ars moriendi, the Dance of Death and the day of judgement dl of which have been sdd to increase in both popularity and emotiond content in the period dter the Black Death? Sears fails to relate effectively her interesting group of images to others of contemporary importance. This is a sad lack. The Ages of Man is not, as the sub-title indicates, about 'medievd interpretations of the Ufe cycle', it isratherabout Uterary and pictorid use made of a popular motif. As such it is of considerable, if limited, interest. In Australia most scholars will be detened more by the price than by the limitations outlined here. To be fair, this is an excellent readable and eminently scholarly book which has been handsomely and accurately produced Hilary M . Carey Department of History University of Sydney Siraisi, N.G., Avicenna in Renaissance Italy, Princeton, P.U.P., 1987; pp.xii, 410; R.R.P. A U S $112.50. With an unadorned style which complements her historiographicd approach, Nancy Siraisi has given us an authoritative yet lively examination of the Rendssance tradition of commentary on Ibn Sina's Qanun fi-l-tibb (Canon). Siraisi's exhaustive research reveds that in spite of the attacks of the medicd humanists and a general atmosphere of intellectud change, commentary on the Canon remdned an active part of medicd pedagogy and scholarship down to the early seventeenth century. To assess Siraisi's achievement it is worthwhile Reviews 153 quoting George Sarton, who cautioned that 'it would be very difficult or rather long and tedious toretracethe Avicenman tradition because hundreds of names would have to be mentioned and the reader would be completely bewildered.' (G. Sarton, Appreciation of Ancient and Medieval Science During the Renaissance (1450-1600), (N.Y., 1961), p.41). Siraisi does occasiondly overwhelm the reader but, given her topic, there was probably no viable dternative. The commentaries and their authors are dlowed to speak for themselves, which has the effect of involving the reader. W e see atfirst-handthe extent to which attempts were made to reconcile AristoteUan and Gdenic thought not only with each other, but with Ibn Sina's own interpretation and with contemporary innovations in medicd thinking and teaching. The book is an invduable case study in the sociology of science since examples abound of paradigmatic conflict, the practice of normd science, and like issues. Additiondly, the book provides a vduable insight into the process whereby an important text such as the Canon, becomes part of the archivd knowledge of a scientific community. Siraisi dso shows how the commentary provided a forum for the didecticd discussion of traditiond medicd issues (e.g. the role of the heart) and contemporary philosophicd and 'scientific' issues (e.g. the problematic status of medicine as a science and the chdlenge of dternative physicd theories). At Padua, lecturing on the Canon was 'not an activity restricted to isolated or peripheralfigures,or to those of especiaUy conservative bent, but...