Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Giacomo Casanova

  • Book review: Casanova’s Guide to Medicine

    Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom   Cover of Casanova’s Guide to Medicine by Lisetta Lovett. The eighteenth-century Italian Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) is today best remembered for legendary amorous pursuits that resulted in his name becoming a part of the English language. What has been forgotten, however, is that he was a remarkable and erudite…

  • The dream of the uterus

    F. Gonzalez-Crussi  Chicago, Illinois, United States   Front page of the book that started the debate on “the thinking uterus” at the University of Bologna: Genial days of the dialectic of women, reduced to its true principle, etc. Naples, 1763. More than one-half century ago, it was my duty to examine and describe, day in…

  • Casanova: Patient Zero and other insights into sexual health in the 1700s

    Beth Jarosz Washington, DC, United States   Portrait of Giacomo Casanova, 18th century Moscow State Historical Museum, Russia Giacomo Casanova, the infamous rake, is responsible for providing historians and anthropologists with a veritable treasure trove of historical health information. His life spanned from 1725 to 1798, and his memoir, Histoire de Ma Vie, recounts nearly…