“I will complete the final phase of writing and researching my PhD dissertation while in Rome. Focusing on the autopsies performed on saints during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Italy, my work investigates the connection between religious belief and human anatomy. The dissertation treats medical theories about the link between spirituality and anatomy, the means by which anatomy could help ‘prove’ sanctity to Catholic and Protestant contemporaries, the reception of medical ideas by lay people, and the ways in which doctors used the Church to promote their career. Early modern Rome, as both the religious and a medical center, is the focal point of this work. In fact, papal and Roman physicians contributed greatly to modern conceptions of anatomy. Thus, this project illustrates that the progress of understanding human anatomy was far from a secular endeavor and highlights a period of cooperation between science and religion.”
