Thomistic Institute – Dr Nuno Castel-Branco
26th May: 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm BST
On Monday 26th May, the Oxford Thomistic Institute will be hosting Dr Nuno Castel-Branco, of All Souls College, to speak on Holy Corpses: Incorrupt Bodies and Early Modern Science.
The lecture will begin at 7.30pm in the Aula at Blackfriars, and will be followed by refreshments. All are welcome.
Abstract
This talk examines how incorrupt bodies of saints, like those of Philip Neri and Francis Xavier, intertwined with anatomical science. It challenges the presumed antagonism between devotion and scientific inquiry. It does so by arguing that the Church’s engagement with these “holy corpses” was tied to the emergence of human dissections and anatomical advancements in the Italian Renaissance.
About the speaker
Nuno Castel-Branco is a historian of science, culture, and religion in early modern Europe and its global expansion. He completed his PhD in the history of science at Johns Hopkins University in 2021 after obtaining an MSc in Physics from the University of Lisbon. He is currently a Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. In the past, he has worked at Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti (Florence), and at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. His first book, ‘The Traveling Anatomist’, on Nicolaus Steno, is under contract with the University of Chicago Press. His articles have been published in Annals of Science, Early Science and Medicine, and Renaissance Quarterly, among others. He also writes for a broader audience and his essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Scientific American.
More information can be found on his website.
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