From male caduco to altered consciousness: two Medici recipes through the lens of modern consciousness science

Abstract

This article examines two therapeutic recipes from the collection of Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici (1667-1743), the last Medici princess: the Polvere da Infantiglioli against the falling sickness (male caduco) and a preparation of amber essence. Together, they provide a case study of how early modern medicine approached sudden, reversible episodes of impaired awareness and responsiveness, phenomena that modern neurology situates at the intersection of epileptology and consciousness science. Drawing on archival sources from the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, this paper examines the language, ingredients, and stated uses of these preparations and interprets them through the modern distinction between the level of consciousness and its content. This study argues that the two recipes reflect an undifferentiated therapeutic practice directed at functions that contemporary consciousness science would distinguish, and that the empirical observation and attempted reversal of transient losses of responsiveness long preceded any mechanistic account of such phenomena. Their circulation through Anna Maria Luisa's courtly and epistolary networks helped sustain her political relevance during the dissolution of the Medici dynasty and highlights the role of aristocratic women in preserving and transmitting medical knowledge outside institutional medicine.