Abstract

This article outlines the development of the notion of healing of body and soul in a variety of medieval authors, from Boethius to Petrarch. It examines how they understood the relationship between philosophy and medicine, focusing in particular on the following themes: the emergence of a clear distinction between healers and physicians; the development of physicians’ professional self-awareness; the debate over the epistemological status of medicine; the metamorphosis of the ideal of philosophical happiness in Christian culture; the persistence (and degeneration) of the ancient view of philosophy as an art of living.