THE MAIN HUMANISTIC MEDICINE MANUAL, WHICH ENJOYED ENORMOUS SUCCESS IN THE 16TH CENTURY.

"Savonarola has been defined as «the most important figure in fifteenth-century practical medicine» because with his works he marked the beginning «of a healthy reaction against medical scholasticism» (Ongaro, 2001, p. 159), particularly for his ability to stimulate criticism of dialectical exercises, of teaching forms considered increasingly less suitable for the specific nature of medicine, for the transmission and growth of its knowledge. He was a very prolific writer and mastered the art of popularization, managing to write clearly even about complicated subjects. However, even "a first survey of the Paduan physician's Latin and vernacular works" is lacking (Gualdo, in Michele Savonarola..., 2011, p. 16), and it is possible to mention only his major works. The most important was the Practica de aegritudinibus a capite usque ad pedes , known and cited as the Practica maior. Based mainly on Avicenna, whom Savonarola calls "my leader" (Libreto de tutte le cosse..., edited by J. Nystedt, 1988, p. 92), it presents itself as a typical medieval medical treatise in which the author sets out the etiopathogenesis, symptomatology, and treatment of individual diseases known at the time, using a topographical approach 'from head to toe'. The date of composition of the Practica is commonly identified as 1440, therefore before its transfer to Ferrara. However, it has been hypothesized that it was composed in two stages, beginning in Padua and ending in Ferrara by 1446 (Pesenti Marangon, 1976-1977, p. 92)." Treccani, sub vocis.