Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T13:11:01.146Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 10 - The Mechanics of the Heart in Antiquity

from Part III - Towards the Mechanization of the Human Body

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2023

By
Matteo Valleriani
Edited by
Maria Gerolemou  and
George Kazantzidis
Maria Gerolemou
Affiliation:
Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington
George Kazantzidis
Affiliation:
University of Patras, Greece
Get access

Summary

In several works and passages, Galen reports on the model of the heart as developed by Erasistratus. Already in 1995 (published in 1997), Heinrich von Staden pointed to the parallel between Erasistratus’ model and the force pump. This technical device, which belongs to the technical apparatus developed in the frame of ancient water-supply systems, was indeed codified in textual and probably even diagrammatic form for the first time by the contemporary Ctesibius during the third century. This chapter first revisits Galen’s reports to define Erasistratus’ model of the heart technically and precisely. Subsequently, it analyzes a series of ancient works and fragments from the Hellenistic period until the second century to establish the extent to which such parallelisms are historically justified on the level of the scientific reflections of the time. In the background, the analysis of archeological findings of periods are considered to show that, contrary to what is usually assumed, the realm of practical activities and engineering might have been strongly influenced by the anatomic knowledge of antiquity.

Keywords

heart modelErasistratusforce pumpCtesibiuspneumaticsVitruviusvon Staden
Type
Chapter
Information
Body and Machine in Classical Antiquity , pp. 245 - 261
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Carra de Vaux, B. 1902. Le livre des appareils pneumatiques et des machines hydrauliques par Philon de Byzance (Paris).Google Scholar
De Lacy, P. 1984. Galen on the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato (Galeni de placitis Hippocratis et Platonis), translated by Phillip de Lacy. Vol. 2, books vi–ix (Berlin).Google Scholar
Diels, H. A. 1893. “Über das physikalische System des Straton,” Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1: 101–127.Google Scholar
Drachmann, A. G. 1948. Ktesibios, Philon and Heron: A Study in Ancient Pneumatics (Copenhagen).Google Scholar
Duff, A. M. 1934. Minor Latin Poets, Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
Garofalo, I. 1988. Erasistrati Fragmenta (Pisa).Google Scholar
Giocondo, G., 1513. Vitruvius: De architectura libri x iterum et Frontinus à Iocundi revisi repurgatique quantum ex collatione licuit (Florence).Google Scholar
Hine, H. M. 1996. “Aetna,” in Hornblower, S. and Spawforth, A., eds., The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford), 31.Google Scholar
Hodge, T. A. 1983. “Siphons in Roman Aqueducts,” Papers of the British School at Rome, 51: 174–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodge, T. A. 2005. Roman Aqueducts & Water Supply (London).Google Scholar
Lonie, I. M. 1973a. “The Paradoxical Text ‘On the Heart.’ Part 1,” Medical History, 17 (1): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lonie, I. M. 1973b. “The Paradoxical Text ‘On the Heart.’ Part 2,” Medical History, 17 (2): 136–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsden, E. W. 1971. Greek and Roman Artillery: Technical Treatises (Oxford).Google Scholar
Oleson, J. P. 1984. Greek and Roman Mechanical Water-Lifting Devices: The History of a Technology (Toronto).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, J. I. 2016. The Sublime in Antiquity (Cambridge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prager, F. D. 1974. Philo of Byzantium: Pneumatica (Wiesbaden).Google Scholar
Rackham, H. 1952. Pliny: Natural History (reprint 1983) (Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
Rowland, I. D., Howe, T. N., and Dewar, M. J., eds. 1999. Vitruvius: Ten Books on Architecture, 10 vols. (Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
Russo, L. 2004. The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 bc and Why It Had to Be Reborn (Berlin).Google Scholar
Schiefsky, M. 2015. “Technē and Method in Ancient Artillery Construction: The Belopoeica of Philo of Byzantium,” in Brooke, H. and Fischer, K. D., eds., The Frontiers of Ancient Science: Essays in Honor of Heinrich von Staden (Berlin), 613–651.Google Scholar
Scott, S. P., ed. 1932. The Civil Law, including the Twelve Tables: The Institutes of Gaius, the Rules of Ulpian, the Opinions of Paulus, the Enactments of Justinian, and the Constitutions of Leo. Translated from the Original Latin, Edited, and Compared with All Accessible Systems of Jurisprudence Ancient and Modern, 17 vols. (Cincinnati).Google Scholar
Setaioli, A. 2015. “Seneca and the Ancient World,” in Bartsch, S. and Schiesaro, A., eds., The Cambridge Companion to Seneca (Cambridge), 255–265.Google Scholar
Valleriani, M. 2016. “Hydrostatics and Pneumatics in Antiquity,” in Irby, G. L., ed., A Companion to Science, Technology and Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome (Hoboken, NJ), 145–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valleriani, M. 2017. “The Epistemology of Practical Knowledge,” in Valleriani, M., ed., Structures of Practical Knowledge (Dordrecht), 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Von Staden, H. 1973. “The Alexandrians,” in Harris, C. R. S., ed., The Heart and the Vascular System in Ancient Greek Medicine: From Alcmaeon to Galen (Oxford), 177–233.Google Scholar
Von Staden, H. 1990. “Cardiovascular Puzzles in Erasistratus and Herophilus,” in Bernabeo, R., ed., Atti del xxxi Congresso Internazionale di Storia della Medicina (Bologna, 30 agosto – 4 settembre 1988) (Bologna), 385–391.Google Scholar
Von Staden, H. 1997. “Teleology and Mechanism: Aristotelian Biology and Early Hellenistic Medicine,” in Kullmann, W. and Föllinger, S., eds., Aristotelische Biologie: Intentionen, Methoden, Ergebnisse. Akten des Symposions über Aristoteles’ Biologie vom 24.–28. Juli 1995 in der Werner-Reimers-Stiftung in Bad Homburg (Wiesbaden), 183–208.Google Scholar
Webster, C. 2014. “Technology and/as Theory: Material Thinking in Ancient Science and Medicine.” Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Columbia.Google Scholar
Whitehead, D. 2010. Apollodorus Mechanicus: Siege-Matters (Poliorkētika) (Stuttgart).Google Scholar
Wikander, , Ö., ed. 2000. Handbook of Ancient Water Technology (Leiden).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcroft, B. 1851. The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria (London).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×