Search Results - Zacchia, Paolo

Paul Zacchias

Paolo Zacchia (1584–1659) was an Italian physician, teacher of medical science and forensic medicine, medico-legal jurist, philosopher, and poet. He is said to have been personal physician to Pope Innocentius X and Pope Alexander VII. Zacchias was also legal adviser to the Rota Romana, the highest Papal court of appeals, and head of the medical system in the Papal States. His most well-known book in three volumes, ''Quæstiones medico-legales'' (1621–1651), established legal medicine as a topic of study.

Zacchias's work also contains superstitious views on magic, witches, and demons which were widely held. At the time, both theological and medical knowledge were required to differentiate natural causes of sickness from supernatural causes which might require attention of the Catholic church. Zacchias took a skeptical approach that attempted to eliminate natural causes before diagnosing phenomena as witchcraft. Medical practitioners at his time were also made available to diagnose and assess between miracles and natural causes.

He is known to have argued that minors make proper test subjects to be put to torture. Despite these views, Zacchias is seen to have notably progressed the works of jurisprudence in medicine of the time period. Provided by Wikipedia