“Fingeranno casi e favole”: Hearsay and Medical Reputation in Early-Modern Bologna. The Case of Marcello Malpighi

The dispute between Marcello Malpighi and Giovanni Girolamo Sbaraglia touched on various aspects of the relationship between theory and practice in medicine, in particular the role of anatomical knowledge in the development of therapy and pathology. These were more than just two opposing views of medicine. Malpighi even feared for his reputation as a good physician, since one of Sbaraglia’s followers, Paolo Mini, seemed capable of even inventing lies to show the shortcomings of his practice and thus discredit him. The distinction between deliberate slander and criticism is at the heart of the short treatise De moralibus criticae regulis by Giovan Gioseffo Orsi, who examines the Malpighi-Sbaraglia dispute from a different perspective, focusing on the guiding principles in scholarly practices. The aim of this paper is therefore to analyse this dispute up to the publication of an ‘unauthorised’ edition of Malpighi’s medical consultations in 1713. This edition, with its embarrassing errors, was likely to reignite the debate (and rumours) about Malpighi's inexperience as a physician.