Directory of Research and Expertise

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Early Modern, Modern History , Social Sciences

Summary of research interests and expertise:

Guido Giglioni works on the notions of life and the imagination in the early modern period, and their relationships with both matter and knowledge. More specifically, his research concentrates on Renaissance philosophers and physicians (such as Marsilio Ficino, Bernardino Telesio, Girolamo Cardano and Tommaso Campanella) and later authors (such as Jan Baptista van Helmont, Henry More, Ralph Cudworth and Albrecht Haller). He graduated at the Johns Hopkins University in 2002 with a PhD dissertation on Francis Glisson, a seventeenth-century English anatomist, who also engaged in philosophical inquiries about the nature of life. In his 'De natura substantiae energetica' (1672), Glisson laid the metaphysical groundwork for the concept of irritability, described in terms of an original property of matter. The main source in Glisson’s medical and philosophical work was Francis Bacon. In the past few years, Giglioni has been carrying out a wide-ranging research aimed at tracing the Baconian roots of the early modern notion of matter and life. A comprehensive study of the early modern notion of imagination represents an integral part of Giglioni's research into the material foundations of knowledge and life, for the imagination played a key role in explaining the vital processes of embodiment and ensoulment, both below and beyond the level of the representative faculties (i.e., the senses and the intellect). The authors examined range from Marsilio Ficino to Francesco Patrizi, from Johann Weyer to Jan Baptiste van Helmont.

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
13-Oct-2017	Medicine of the Mind in Early Modern Philosophy Chapters The Routledge Handbook of the Stoic Tradition, ed. by John Sellars (London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 189-203
23-May-2016	Medicine of the Mind in Early Modern Philosophy Chapters The Routledge Handbook of the Stoic Tradition, ed. by John Sellars, (London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 189-203.
20-May-2016	Francis Bacon on Motion and Power Edited Book  ed. by G. Giglioni, J.A.T. Lancaster, Sorana Corneanu and Dana Jalobeanu (Dordrecht: Springer, 2016).
20-May-2016	Lists of Motions: Francis Bacon on Material Disquietude Chapters Francis Bacon on Motion and Power, ed. by G. Giglioni, J.A.T. Lancaster, S. Corneanu and D. Jalobeanu (Dordrecht: Springer, 2016), 61-82.
20-May-2016	Francis Bacon and the Theologico-Political Reconfiguration of Desire in the Early Modern Period Chapters Francis Bacon on Motion and Power, ed. by G. Giglioni, J.A.T. Lancaster, Sorana Corneanu and Dana Jalobeanu (Dordrecht: Springer, 2016), pp. 1-39.
20-May-2016	'Cupido, sive Atomus; Dionysus, sive Cupiditas': Francis Bacon on Desire, in Francis Bacon on Motion and Power Chapters  Francis Bacon on Motion and Power, ed. by G. Giglioni, J.A.T. Lancaster, Sorana Corneanu and Dana Jalobeanu (Dordrecht: Springer, 2016), pp. 153-173.
17-Nov-2015	Scaliger versus Cardano versus Scaliger Chapters  Forms of Conflict and Rivalries in Renaissance Europe, ed. by David A. Lines, Marc Laureys and Jill Kraye (Bonn: Bonn University Press, 2015), pp. 109-130.
24-Mar-2015	‘Philosophy’ Review  , in The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Latin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 249-262.
19-Jan-2015	Automaton, or the Human Dream on Life and Freedom Chapters  Autómato vivo? A vida, um artefacto natural, ed. by Manuel Valente Alves and Adelino Cardoso (Lisbon: Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência, 2015), pp. 51-57.
21-Apr-2014	‘Who Is Afraid of Frances Yates? Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (1964) Fifty Years Later Articles  Bruniana et Campanelliana, 20 (2014), pp. 421-432.
21-Apr-2014	The 'Horror' of Bruno’s Magic: Frances Yates Gives a Lecture at the Warburg Institute (1952) Articles  Bruniana et Campanelliana, 20 (2014), pp. 477-478 [introduction to the edition of Frances Yates’s paper on ‘Giordano Bruno’, ibid., pp. 480-497].
03-Apr-2014	From the Woods of Experience to the Open Fields of Metaphysics: Bacon’s Notion of 'Silva' Articles Renaissance Studies, pp. 242-261.
01-Mar-2014	Theurgy and Philosophy in Marsilio Ficino’s Paraphrase of Iamblichus’s De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum Articles Rinascimento, 52 (2014 [2012]), pp. 3-36.
07-Feb-2014	‘Medicine’ and ‘Spinoza’ Articles Brill’s Encyclopaedia of the Neo-Latin World, ed. by Philip Ford, Jan Bloemendal and Charles Fantazzi (Leiden: Brill, 2014), pp. 679-690; 1180-1182.
01-Jan-2014	Humans, Elephants, Diamonds and Gold: Patterns of Intentional Design in Girolamo Cardano’s Natural Philosophy Articles  ‘Humans, Elephants, Diamonds and Gold: Patterns of Intentional Design in Girolamo Cardano’s Natural Philosophy’, Gesnerus, 71 , 2014, pp. 237-247;
01-Jan-2014	The Place of the Imagination in Bacon’s and Descartes’ Philosophical Systems Edited Book  ‘The Place of the Imagination in Bacon’s and Descartes’ Philoso¬phical Systems’, in Bacon et Descartes: Genèses de la modernité philosophique, ed. Élodie Cassan, Lyon, ENS-Editions, 2014, pp. 101-113;
01-Jan-2014	‘Death in Rome: Lancisi, Pope Clement XI, and the Medicalisation of Life Edited Book   ‘Death in Rome: Lancisi, Pope Clement XI, and the Medicalisation of Life’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science [Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences], 46, 2014, pp. 97-99;
10-Dec-2013	Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and the Place of Irritability in the History of Life and Death Chapters Vitalism and the Scientific Image in Post-Enlightenment Life Science, 1800-2010, ed. by Sebastian Normandin and Charles T. Wolfe (Dordrecht: Springer, 2013), pp. 19-49.
01-Dec-2013	Learning to Read Nature: Francis Bacon's Notion of Experimental Literacy (Experientia Literata) Articles Early Science and Medicine 18 (2013), pp. 405-434.
01-Nov-2013	Girolamo Cardano: University Student and Professor Articles Renaissance Studies, 27 (2013), pp. 517-532.
31-Oct-2013	Bernardino Telesio, De rerum natura (1586) Edited Book
30-Sep-2013	Francis Bacon Chapters The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century. ed. by Peter R. Anstey, Oxford, Oxford University Press
23-Apr-2013	Girolamo (Geronimo) Cardano Articles Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
01-Mar-2013	Heavenly Negotiations in Ficino’s De Vita Coelitus Comparanda and Their Place in Campanella’s Metaphysica Articles Bruniana et Campanelliana, 19 (2013), pp. 33-46.
01-Mar-2013	Renaissance Views of Sense Perception Chapters in Renaissance Keywords, ed. by Ita Mac Carthy, London: Legenda, 2013, pp. 13-28.
03-Feb-2013	Phantastica Mutatio: Johann Weyer's Critique of the Imagination as a Principle of Natural Metamorphosis Chapters in Transformative Change in Western Thought: A History of Metamorphosis from Homer to Hollywood, ed. by Ingo Gildenhard and Andrew Zissos, pp. 307-330.
02-Jan-2013	How Bacon Became Baconian Chapters in The Mechanization of Natural Philosophy, ed. by Daniel Garber and Sophie Roux, Dordrecht, Springer, 2013, pp. 27-54.
01-Jan-2013	Phantasms of Reason and Shadows of Matter: Averroes’s Notion of the Imagination and Its Renaissance Interpreters in Renaissance Averroism and Its Aftermath: Arabic Philosophy in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Anna Akasoy and Guido Giglioni, Dordrecht, Springer, 2013, pp. 173-193.
01-Jan-2013	Renaissance Averroism and Its Aftermath: Arabic Philosophy in Early Modern Europe Edited Book ed. with Anna Akasoy, Dordrecht, Springer, 2013.
01-Jan-2013	Life and Its Animal Boundaries: Ethical Implications in Early Modern Theories of Universal Animation Chapters Ethical Perspectives on Animals in the Renaissance and Early Modern Period, ed. by Cecilia Muratori and Burkhard Dohm, Florence, SISMEL - Edizioni del Galluzzo, pp. 110-137.
01-Jan-2013	The Uncomfortable 'Biformitas' of Being: Bacon on the Animal Soul Chapters The Animal Soul and the Human Mind: Renaissance Debates, ed. by Cecilia Muratori, Rome and Pisa, Serra, pp, 191-207.
02-Oct-2012	I vincoli della natura: Magia e stregoneria nel Rinascimento Edited Book  ed. with Germana Ernst, Rome, Carocci, 2012.
02-Oct-2012	Il linguaggio dei cieli: Astri e simboli nel Rinascimento Edited Book ed. with Germana Ernst, Rome, Carocci, 2012.
01-Oct-2012	La magia rinascimentale e le tensioni della prima modernità Chapters in I vincoli della natura: Magia e stregoneria nel Rinascimento, ed. by Germana Ernst and G. Giglioni, Rome, Carocci, 2012, pp. 29-45.
01-Oct-2012	La magia e i poteri dell’immaginazione Articles I vincoli della natura: Magia e stregoneria nel Rinascimento, ed. by Germana Ernst and G. Giglioni, Rome, Carocci, 2012, pp. 63-78.
01-Jan-2012	Francis Bacon and the Medicine of the Mind: Late Renaissance Contexts (witth Sorana Corneanu and Dana Jalobeanu Edited Book special issue of Perspectives on Science, 20 (2012), pp. 246-272
01-Jan-2012	The Place of Natural History in Francis Bacon’s Philosophy (ed. with Sorana Corneanu and Dana Jalobeanu) Edited Book special issue of Early Science and Medicine, 17 (2012), pp. 1-271
01-Jan-2012	Philosophy According to Tacitus: Francis Bacon and the Inquiry into the Limits of Human Self-Delusion Articles Perspectives on Science, 20 (2012), pp.159-182.
01-Jan-2012	'Historia' and 'Materia': The Philosophical Implications of Francis Bacon’s Natural History Articles Early Science and Medicine, 17 (2012), pp. 62-86.
01-Jan-2012	The Metaphysical Implications of Campanella’s Notion of Fiction Articles Bruniana et Campanelliana, 18 (2012), pp. 31-41.
01-Jan-2012	Justus Lipsius and the Notion of Oikeiosis: A Note on the Early Modern Notion of Self-Preservation Chapters in 'Justus Lipsius and Natural Philosophy', ed. by Hiro Hirai and Jan Papy, Brussels, Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van Belgie voor Wetenshappen en Kunsten, 2011, pp. 33-52.
01-Jan-2012	‘The Many Rhetorical Personae of an Early Modern Physician: Girolamo Cardano on Truth and Persuasion’, Chapters Rhetoric and Medicine in Early Modern Europe, ed. Stephen Pender and Nancy Struever, Farnham (Surrey) and Burlington, VT, 2012
01-Jan-2011	Coping with Inner and Outer Demons: Marsilio Ficino’s Theory of the Imagination Chapters in Diseases of the Imagination and Imaginary Disease in the Early Modern Period, ed. by Yasmin Haskell, Turnhout, Brepols, 2011, pp. 19-51.
01-Jan-2011	Francesco Bacone Monographs Rome, Carocci, 2011
01-Jan-2011	Spirito e coscienza nella medicina di Bernardino Telesio Chapters ‘Spirito e coscienza nella medicina di Bernardino Telesio’, in ‘Virtù ascosta e negletta’: La Calabria nella modernità, ed. by Germana Ernst and Rosa M. Calcaterra, Milan, Angeli, 2011, pp. 154-168
01-Jan-2011	Reality and Metaphors in the Language of Renaissance Medicine: The Case of Rodrigo de Castro’ Chapters in Percursos na História do Livro Medico, ed. by Palmira Fontes da Costa and Adelino Cardoso, Lisbon, Edições Colibri, 2011, pp. 45-58.
01-Jan-2010	The Anatomical Foundations of Tommaso Campanella’s Theory of Magic Articles Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, 66 (2010), pp. 9-24
01-Jan-2010	The Matter of the Imagination: The Renaissance Debate over Icastic and Fantastic Imitation Articles The Matter of the Imagination: The Renaissance Debate over Icastic and Fantastic Imitation’, Camenae, 8 (2010), pp. 1-21 (http://www.paris-sorbonne.fr/la-recherche/les-unites-de-recherche/mondes-anciens-et-medievaux-ed1/rome-et-ses-renaissances-art-3625/revue-en-ligne-camenae/article/camenae-no-8-decembre-2010)
01-Jan-2010	Fazio and His Demons: Girolamo Cardano on the Art of Storytelling and the Science of Witnessing Articles Bruniana et Campanelliana, 16 (2010), pp. 463-472
01-Jan-2010	Synesian Dreams: Girolamo Cardano on Dreams as Means of Prophetic Communication Articles Bruniana et Campanelliana 16 (2010), pp. 575-584
01-Jan-2010	Fantasy Islands: Utopia, The Tempest, and New Atlantis as Places of Controlled Credulousness’, in World-Building and the Early Modern Imagination, ed. by A. B. Kavey, New York, Palgrave, 2010, pp. 91-117 Chapters World-Building and the Early Modern Imagination, ed. by A. B. Kavey, New York, Palgrave, 2010, pp. 91-117
01-Jan-2010	Mastering the Appetites of Matter: Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum’, in The Body as Object and Instrument of Knowledge: Embodied Empiricism in Early Modern Science, ed. by C. T. Wolfe and O. Gal, Dordrecht, Springer, 2010, pp. 149-167 Research aids The Body as Object and Instrument of Knowledge: Embodied Empiricism in Early Modern Science, ed. by C. T. Wolfe and O. Gal, Dordrecht, Springer, 2010, pp. 149-167
01-Jan-2010	The First of the Moderns or the Last of the Ancients? Bernardino Telesio on Nature and Sentience Articles Bruniana et Campanelliana, 16 (2010), pp. 69-87
2010	As forcas da vida Lisboa: Edicoes Colibri
01-Jan-2009	Reading Nature without Making a Book of It: Francis Bacon’s Novum organum Chapters Reading Nature without Making a Book of It: Francis Bacon’s Novum organum, in Mélivres / Misbooks. Études sur l’envers et les travers du livre, ed. by Pascale Hummel, Paris, Philologicum, 2009, pp. 55-70
01-Jan-2009	Il cielo sopra L’Aquila. Pietro Pomponazzi su immaginazione e devozione popolare Chapters Il cielo sopra L’Aquila. Pietro Pomponazzi su immaginazione e devozione popolare’, Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Studi su Pietro Pomponazzi, by Marco Sgarbi, Florence, Olschki, 2009, pp. 271-183
01-Jan-2009	Senso, linguaggio e divinazione nella filosofia di Tommaso Campanella. Nuove edizioni di testi campanelliani Articles Rivista di Storia della Filosofia (2009), pp. 309-320
01-Jan-2008	What Ever Happened to Francis Glisson? Albrecht Haller and the Fate of Eighteenth-Century Irritability Articles Science in Context, 21 (2008), pp.1-29
01-Jan-2008	The Cosmoplastic System of the Universe: Ralph Cudworth’s Analysis of Stoic Naturalism Articles Revue d’Histoire des Sciences, 61 (2008), pp. 313-331
01-Jan-2008	Mucche pazze, desiderio sessuale e ispirazione poetica. L’anatomia dell’estro di Antonio Vallisneri Antonio Vallisneri. La figura, il contesto, le immagini storiografiche, ed. by D. Generali, Florence, Olschki, 2008, pp. 285-316
01-Jan-2004	Ateismo e machiavellismo in età moderna : il ritrovato Ateismo Trionfato di Tommaso Campanella Offprint from: Rinascimento. 2/44
1996	" Anatomist atheist? : the 'hylozoistic' foundations of Francis Glisson's anatomical research" Offprint from: Religio medici: medicine and religion in seventeenth-century England. Edited by Ole Peter Grell and Andrew Cunningham

Publications available on SAS-space:

Date	Details
	The First of the Moderns or the Last of the Ancients? Bernardino Telesio on Nature and Sentience PeerReviewed Bernardino Telesio’s philosophy of nature marked a momentous change in the philosophical panorama of late Renaissance. By redefining the notion of sentience (sensus) as the ability, inherent in the two principle forces of the universe (heat and cold), to react and adapt to a reality in constant change, Telesio championed a view of nature and man that radically departed from the principles of Aristotle’s natural philosophy. In developing his new notion of sentience, Telesio insisted on the aspects of receptivity and awareness. Through the first, he stressed the primary role of pneumatic matter (spiritus), understood as a thin, supple and swift vehicle capable of accounting for all material changes in the universe ; through the second, he raised the property of self-perception to the level of a universal natural property. This allowed him to replace the key Aristotelian concept of unintentional teleology with the idea of a self-organising power inherent in nature and to endow the material spirit with the ability to feel and react to all phenomena occurring in the universe (spiritus omniscius omnino). By relying on subtly discerning tendencies of pursuit and avoidance, Telesio’s spirit was thus capable of preserving life at all levels, both higher and lower, physical and ethical.
	Synesian Dreams. Giacomo Cardano on dreams as means of prophetic communication PeerReviewed Girolamo Cardano conceived and outlined his four books on dreams ac-cording to Synesius’ philosophy between 1535 and 1537. Originally divided into ten books, the volume underwent subsequent modifications until it was pub-lished in 1562. We know from Cardano’s own testimony how the key episodes in his life were always heralded or accompanied by dreams. From this point of view, the 1562 summa on dreams reflects one of the most critical of such moments. As Jean-Yves Boriaud explains in the introduction to his new Latin edition and French translation of Somniorum Synesiorum libri quatuor, in the year prior to the composition of this work, Cardano was undergoing intense dream activity as a result of the tragic execution in 1560 of his son Giovanni Battista, who had been charged with poisoning his wife. From that moment on, the death of his son would represent a watershed moment in both his life and literary career. For this reason, too, Somniorum Synesiorum libri quatuor deserves to be considered as one of Cardano’s most important writings and Boriaud’s edition should be saluted as a notable accomplishment.
	Introduction: Tommaso Campanella and the arts of writing PeerReviewed An introduction to vol. XVIII, no. 1 of Bruniana & Campanelliana.
	Fazio and His Demons: Girolamo Cardano on the art of storytelling and the science of witnessing PeerReviewed Fazio Cardano, Girolamo Cardano’s father, plays a key role in Girolamo’s philosophi-cal investigations. This article focuses on Girolamo’s use of Fazio as an authoritative figure in matters of demonic apparitions and explores the boundaries – not always clearly defined – between storytelling and reliable witnessing in Cardano’s accounts of family memories, reported speeches and preternatural phenomena.
	The Eternal Return of the Same Intellects. A new edition of Girolamo Cardano's De Immortalitate Animorum PeerReviewed
	The Metaphysical Implications of Campanella's Notion of Fiction PeerReviewed Campanella’s notion of fiction (fabula) hinges upon a multilayered view of reality based on a series of ontological divisions : ens rationis divinae, ens reale, ens rationis, ens irrationalitatis and non ens. They identify levels of being that span the full range of reality, from a minimum to a maximum degree (an ontological spectrum that in Campanella’s philosophy is closely connected to the Telesian criterion of self-preservation). According to Campanella, any human foray into the territories of ‘being of reason’, ‘being of unreason’ and even ‘non being’ is always balanced by a natural ‘return’ to being and reality. This article intends to contextualise Campanella’s views on fiction within the broader framework of his metaphysics.
	Philosophy According to Tacitus: Francis Bacon and the Inquiry into the Limits of Human Self-Delusion PeerReviewed Bacon belonged to a cultural milieu that, between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, proved to be especially receptive to infuences coming from such continental authors as Machiavelli, Bodin, Duplessis-Mornay, Hotman, and, through Lipsius, a particular brand of Stoicism tinged with Tacitean motifs. Within the broader question of Tacitus’ infuence on Tudor and Stuart culture, this article focuses on the issue of how Bacon’s characteristic insistence on the powers of the imagination (fingere) and of belief (credere) in shaping human history may have infuenced his view that human beings suffer from an innate tendency to self-delusion.
	What Ever happened to Francis Glisson? Albrecht Haller and the Fate of Eighteenth-Century Irritability PeerReviewed This article investigates the reasons behind the disappearance of Francis Glisson’s theory of irritability during the eighteenth century. At a time when natural investigations were becoming increasingly polarized between mind and matter in the attempt to save both man’s consciousness and the inert nature of the res extensa, Glisson’s notion of a natural perception embedded in matter did not satisfy the new science’s basic injunction not to superimpose perceptions and appetites on nature. Knowledge of nature could not be based on knowledge within nature, i.e., on the very knowledge that nature has of itself; or – to look at the same question from the point of view of the human mind – man’s consciousness could not be seen as participating in forms of natural selfhood. Albrecht Haller played a key role in this story. Through his experiments, Haller thought he had conclusively demonstrated that the response given by nature when irritated did not betray any natural perceptivity, any inner life, any sentiment interi´eur. In doing so, he provided a less bewildering theory of irritability for the rising communities of experimental physiology.

Research Projects & Supervisions

Research projects:

Details

The Medicine of the Mind and Natural Philosophy in Early Modern England: A New Way of Interpreting Francis Bacon European Research Council Starting Grant under the European Community’s 7th Framework Programme. This five-year research project, which began in December 2009, is being carried out in conjunction with the New Europe College (Colegiul Noua Europ?) in Bucharest. So far, a colloquium at the Warburg Institute and two workshops in Bucharest have been organized and the proceedings are being published in Early Science and Medicine, Perspectives on Science and a volume printed by Springer.

Current PhD topics supervised:

Dates	Details
From: Until:	The Notion of Imagination in Ficino’s Commentary on Plotinus Anna Corrias
From: Until:	Exchange of Knowledge through Translation: Jan Baptista van Helmont and his Editors and Translators in the Seventeenth Century Sietske Fransen
From: Until:	The Idea of prudentia and the Culture of Dis/simulation in Early Modern Europe Michael Gordian
From: Until:	Cultura animi and the Medicalisation/Pathologisation of ‘Religion’ and ‘the Religions’ in Early Modern England James Lancaster (as part of the ERC project on the Medicine of the Mind and Natural Philosophy in Early Modern England: A New Way of Interpreting Francis Bacon).

Professional Affiliations

Collaborations:

Name	Type	Activity	Start date	End date
Oxford Francis Bacon project	One the editors of the volume on Sylva Sylvarum.
Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Antonio Vallisneri	Together with Andrea Asioli, he is editing Vallisneri’s Esperienze ed osservazioni intorno all’origine, sviluppi e costumi di vari insetti (1713)
A natureza no pensamento médico-filosófico na transição do século XVII ao XVIII (PTDC/FIL-FCI/116843/2010), Universidade Nova of Lisbon.

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