Chinese Herbals in Renaissance Italy

Friday, October 19, 2012

 

 

Chinese Herbals in Renaissance Italy

Irene Backus, a visiting assistant professor in art history from the University of Chicago, will offer a roundtable talk titled “Spice of the Earth: Chinese Herbals in Renaissance Italy” on Wednesday, Oct. 24, from noon to 1 p.m. in room 104 of the Bartlett Center at OSU. The talk is free and open to the public. The presentation is drawn from her recent dissertation which examines the impact that Chinese wares had on sixteenth century Italy.

Intended for consumption, spices could either be applied to the skin or taken internally, thus permeating both body and soul. By ingesting foreign aromatics, Europeans were exposing not only their bodies but also their souls to foreign influence – they were inviting the essence of another, unknown place into the very essence of themselves. This work explores the Chinese herbs that formed the basis for certain Renaissance medical treatment, and how they affected the renaissance body on the one hand while representing their homeland on the other.

 

Graphic: Acosta, Cristóbal, “China Wood,” Trattato Di Christoforo Acosta Africano ...