Summary This study looks at the ways in which physicians and philosophers developed Galen's philosophical legacy at the end of the Renaissance, and shows how their reading of classical medical texts moved beyond accepted patterns and conventions. By challenging a traditional historiographical account that described Renaissance Galenism in terms of decline and fall, this study argues for a new assessment of Galen's legacy, also read through the lens of those who opposed or reacted critically to it and thus contributed to the shaping of important aspects of the early modern debate on anthropology, ethics, psychology and even quantified experimentation. Among these many innovations and transformations, the notion of 'ingenuity' (ingenium) deserves particular attention. Hidden within this corporeal, inherent and heritable inclination, two major themes that side disquietingly with the development of modern subjectivity can be identified: the 'corporeality of the body', and the common destiny of humans and animals. More generally, this study offers a contribution to the ongoing debate on the role and value of medical history, arguing in favour of the concept of 'historical translatability' in balancing the longue dur e of traditions with the chaotic interactions of individual thinkers. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations List of Figures List of Plates Acknowledgements Introduction Part One - Premises Chapter One - Body and Anatomy in the Galenic Tradition The Reflourishing of Anatomical Studies Questions of Method Soul and Anatomy Materia sentiens Generation and Essence Galenic Anthropology Alexandrianism and Galenism Chapter Two - The Soul, A Physical Question The Seat of the Rational Soul The Brain: Form and Function Sensus communis The Relation between the Whole and Its Parts Vexatae quaestiones Innate Heat A Late-Renaissance Polemic: Cesare Cremonini and Pompeo Caimo Medicine for the Soul and Treatment for the Passions Part Two - Developments Chapter Three - From Galen to Huarte: The Quod animi mores and the 'Theory of Ingenium' Themes and Arguments in the Quod animi mores Constitution, Typology, and Physiognomy Analogy and Consecution: An Advanced Model Juan Huarte's Examen de ingenios (1575) Natura facit habilem Intuition and Genius Principles of Eugenics From mens to ingenium Chapter Four - The Matter of the Spirit Antonio Persio's Trattato dell'ingegno dell'huomo (1576) From Galenism to Naturalism: Agostino Doni's De natura hominis libri duo (1581) Naturalism and Medicine in Bernardino Telesio's Quod animal universum (1590) The 'Two Souls' in Telesio's Philosophy Spiritus ingenium est: From Physiology to Ethics Eustachio Rudio's Liber de anima (1611) Heat and Life The Vegetable - Animal Continuum Essence, Quality, and Degree Part Three - Reactions and Consequences Chapter Five - Passion and Pathology: The Response of Aristotelianism The Individual, Nature, and Character in Francesco Piccolomini's Universa philosophia de moribus (1583) Causal Consecution Natural Inclination and Pathology Cesare Cremonini's Quaestio: utrum animi mores corporis sequantur temperamentum Lectures I-III Lectures IV-V Lectures VI-VII Forms of Causality: The Model of Intrinsic Finality Giovanni Battista Persona's Commentary on the Quod animi mores (1602) The Ambiguous Relation between Mind and Brain 'Removing the Animal' Chapter Six - Beyond Tradition: Santorio and Descartes The Concept of Equilibrium Transformed: Santorio From Degree to Quantity Differences and Analogies: Santorio, Galileo, and Alexandrian Science Substance and Quality in the Methodus vitandorum errorum omnium (1603) Situs, Figura, Numerus The Body and the Machine Sources and Problems in Descartes' Medicine Experiment or Observation? Descartes on the Movement of the Heart and the Arteries Unsettling Similarities Descartes and Naturalism: A Project in Common Vestiges of Animality Final Remarks - The Role of Tradition in Medical Thought Plates Bibliography - Manuscripts - Ancient Print and Fascimile Editions (Up to the 18th Century) - Secondary Literature Index of Concepts and Terms Index of Names and Titles