Dr Fabrizio Bigotti

I am an intellectual historian, with a specialisation in the pre-modern history of science, technology, and medicine (Antiquity to the 18th century).

My work focuses predominantly on medieval and early modern conceptual history, visualisation of the body, practices of quantification and precision instrument making as well as anatomical dissection and Latin palaeography. My interests extend more broadly to the role that classical and medieval philosophy played in the development of early modern ideas on logic, method, theory of matter, taxonomy, anatomy and physiology.

I studied at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, where I achieved a BA in Theoretical Philosophy (2005, summa cum laude), an MA in Philosophy of Science (2008, summa cum laude) and a PhD in History of Philosophy and History of Ideas (2012, summa cum laude), with a thesis on the influence of Galen’s medicine and psychology on the late-Renaissance philosophy.

At present, I am a Senior Fellow at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg working as Principal Investigator (Eigene Stelle) on the project "Measuring the World by Degrees. Intensity in Early Modern Medicine and Natural Philosophy (1400-1650)" funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Project no: 461231785). I am also an Affiliated Scholar at the University of Cambridge (HPS) and hold an honorary fellowship at the University of Exeter.

I held positions as Postdoctoral and Research Fellow at The Warburg Institute University of London,  the University of Exeter,  the Folger Institute in Washington DC, the Edward Worth Library in Dublin, and the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg. In addition, I was awarded Visiting Fellowships at the University of Cambridge (Department of History and Philosophy of Science - HPS), the University of Valencia (López Piñero Institute), the University of Bucharest (Institute for Advanced Research in the Humanities - IRH-ICUB), and the University of Padua (Dipartimento di Scienze Cardio-Toracico-Vascolari e Sanità Pubblica).

In 2018 I founded the 'Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance', an institute of advanced research in medical humanities and the history of science. Based at the Domus Comeliana in Pisa, the CSMBR is funded by a private charity, the Institutio Santoriana Fondazione Comel, and co-funded by international partners such as Yale University (USA), the University of Exeter (UK), the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (Germany), the University of Parma (Italy) and the Studio Firmano for the History of Medicine and Science (Italy), operating on a global scale.

I am also co-editor in chief of the series 'Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine' (Springer Nature),  and co-editor of the Journal 'Sudhoffs Archiv - Journal for the History of Science and Medicine', which is the oldest continuously published journal for the history of science in the world.

As a junior instructor in Rome (2006-2012), I convened modules on ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy and culture, teaching to undergraduates, postgraduates and adult learners alike. Most recently, as an Adjunct Professor (Exeter, Bucharest, Wurzburg: 2018-2020), I have been teaching modules on Early Modern Italian Culture and Society, as well as on Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition, on Galen and early modern medicine, and on German Idealism (2019-2020). Currently (2018 to present), I lecture on Historical Foundations of Medical Theory and Practice ("Historisches Grundlagen ärztlichen Denkens und Handelns") at the Insitute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg.

Other than in the history and philosophy of science, I pursued a career as a musician and musicologist. I hold a degree in choral direction and my expertise encompasses areas such as composition, musicology, musical direction and palaeography. In my capacity as a director and musicologist, in 2014 I issued the world prémiere CD on the unpublished manuscripts by Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) discovered at Palazzo Altemps in Rome: "Gregorio Allegri, Unpublished Works from the 'Collectio Altaemps’ ", Musica Flexanima Ensemble, TACTUS Records Italy (https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=TC550007)