An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

SANTORIO, Santorio [SANCTORIUS]

4 entries
  • 572.1

Methodi vitandorum errorum omnium, qui in arte medica…

Venice: Bariletto, 1603.

First mention of Santorio’s pulse-clock (“pulsilogium”) and his scale. Through most of the 17th and 18th centuries Santorio’s name was linked with that of Harvey as the greatest figure in physiology and experimental medicine because of his introduction of precision instruments for quantitative studies. He was also the founder of modern metabolic research.



Subjects: INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES › Medical Instruments, PHYSIOLOGY
  • 572.2

Commentaria in artem medicinalem Galeni.

Venice: Jocobus Antonius Somaschus, 1612.

First printed mention of the air thermometer, an instrument that played a vital part in the creation of static medicine. This device was similar to Galileo’s open-air thermoscope, of which Santorio may have known, but he was the first to transform the thermoscope into a thermometer by adding a scale with fixed reference points



Subjects: INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES › Medical Instruments › Thermometer, PHYSIOLOGY
  • 573

Ars…de statica medicina aphorismorum sectionibus septem comprehensa.

Venice: apud N. Polum, 1614.

This collection of aphorisms is the work by which Santorio’s ideas became widely known. Santorio used a beam balance to measure metabolism. See also nos. 572.1 & 572.2. For description of his experiments, see No. 2668. English translations by Abdiah Cole (1663), John Davies (1676), and others.



Subjects: INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES, PHYSIOLOGY
  • 2668

Commentaria in primam fen primi libri canonis Avicennae.

Venice: Jacobus Sarcina, 1625.

The chief value of this work is in its cautious revelation of the principles of construction of various instruments that Santorio had invented, including a hygrometer, a pendulum for measuring pulse rate, a syringe for extracting bladder stones, and a bathing bed. The instruments are depicted in woodcut diagrams, the earliest illustrations of Santorio’s instruments. For the first description of Santorio’s pulse-clock see No. 572.1.



Subjects: INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES, INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES › Medical Instruments › Syringe, PHYSIOLOGY