Hylomorphism is a recent term in the history of philosophy and the sciences. What was used from Antiquity to the early modern period was the terminological couple “matter” and “form.” According to the Aristotelian physics, matter and form are indissociable principles which constitute the elements and preside over the generation and destruc…[Read more]

In late Renaissance medicine, the example of digestion was frequently invoked to prove the elemental composition of the human body. Food was considered as being decomposed in its first elements by the stomach, and digested into a thick juice which is assimilated by the liver and the body parts. Such a process points to the structure of the human…[Read more]

The Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville was one of the most widely read works of the early Middle Ages, as is evidenced by the number of surviving manuscripts. August Eduard Anspach’s handlist from the 1940s puts their number at almost 1,200, of which approximately 300 were estimated to have been copied before the year 1000. This article, based on a…[Read more]

Literary journalism offers an important way for explaining the complexity of the scientific world to a lay audience. An analysis of two of Richard Preston’s pieces published by The New Yorker, “The Mountains of Pi” and “Capturing the Unicorn” and how they give emphasize science-in-the-making.

“Hace ya veintiséis años se publicó una colección de ensayos en homenaje a la historiadora Natalie Zemon Davis que incluía un capítulo llamado “People of the Ribera: Popular Politics and Neighborhood Identity in Early Modern Barcelona”. En él, su autor, a quien ahora dedicamos esta obra, delinea brevemente una metodología para analizar el perfil s…[Read more]

Comparative studies have revealed uncanny similarities between the theatrical cultures of Shakespearean England and Golden Age Spain, and in particular between the Elizabethan amphitheaters and the Spanish corrales de comedia (courtyard playhouses). Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, Spain’s (and, in particular, Madrid’s) courtyard the…[Read more]