Tag: Sally Metzler
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Rome’s Ospedale Santo Spirito: From ruin to revival
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Renowned for his restoration of the legendary Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Pope Sixtus IV (Francesco della Rovere; 1414–1484) embellished Rome with such rapidity and magnitude that he earned the title Urbis Restaurator. Some lauded him as the new Augustus of the Eternal City and praised him for surpassing his…
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Brushstrokes and benevolence: Thomas Sully, Samuel Coates, and the Pennsylvania Hospital
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Artist Thomas Sully was born in 1783 in the remote English village of Horcastle, but he would gain fame and fortune in the city where the greatest minds came together to sign the United States Constitution: Philadelphia. Lauded as the “Athens” of North America,1 Philadelphia lured artists seeking commissions from…
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Edvard Munch: Medical portraits
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States The name Edvard Munch usually recalls his masterful painting titled The Scream (fig. 1). This iconic image from 1893 depicts a moody landscape inhabited by a ghostlike, androgynous, wispy figure, facing if not confronting the viewer. Elongated hands frame the head, pressing emphatically on the ears of a hairless ovoid…
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The memoirs of Catherine the Great: Forecasting death
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Courageous and voracious in her quest for power, Empress Catherine the Great (1729–1796) dominated the world stage of politics in the second half of the eighteenth century. The daughter of a Lutheran German prince, she traded her homeland, changed her religion, and even her language, sedulously studying Russian and impressing…
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Paolo Sarpi: Venetian hero, Roman heretic
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Though an obscure figure today, for many years Fra Paolo Sarpi (1552–1623) loomed large in the ecclesiastical, scientific, and political arenas of Europe. Macaulay praised him as his “favorite modern historian,”1 Boswell called him a genius, and Samuel Johnson considered translating him to the English-speaking world. A venerable polymath, he…
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Emperor Otto II, malaria, and aloe
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Holy Roman Emperor Emperor Otto II (AD 955–983) conquered the Saracens and quelled the invading Magyar menace. However, his ambitious reign abruptly ended, not in battle, but in bed. At the young age of twenty-eight, he departed from this world. Tradition maintains that a malarial fever caused his premature death.…
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Byzantine Emperor John Tzimisces: Murder, charity, & leprosy
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Few historical figures present singular profiles of good or evil. Often, the confluence of disparate actions molds the fame or infamy of great leaders. A prime example is Byzantine Emperor John Tzimisces (b. 925–d. 976). Though he rose to power through murder, he consistently displayed a marked benevolence towards the…
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Death of the Prudent Prince, Medici Grand Duke Ferdinando II
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States The day of May 27, 1670, bore witness to the death of Ferdinando II, a man lauded as a most prudent prince and admired by his European peers. His reign was termed as a “prolonged and pleasant autumn, the taste of venison.”1 Ferdinando II was the fourth Grand Duke of…
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Caterina Sforza of Forli: Warrior and medical alchemist
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Fearless, beautiful, and cunning, Caterina Sforza (1462–1509) fought heroically to defend her fiefdoms of Imola and Forli until the bitter end. Even the celebrated and infamous Renaissance strategist, Niccolò Machiavelli, remarked that he had met his match in Caterina, and confessed he could not outwit her. Historians laud her as…
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Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones: Feeding fevers
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States For years, physicians and pundits have deliberated the merits of starving or feeding a fever. Even the novel Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (published in 1749) presents a lengthy discourse on the recommended treatment of fever in regard to nutrition.1 As the heroic foundling Jones languishes in bed from a…