User:AdamSterton/Federico Meninni

Federico Meninni, or Federigo (Gravina in Puglia, June 14, 1636 - Naples, 1712), was an Italian physician and poet.

Biography
He was born in Gravina in Puglia to the noble Angelo and Ruffina Errico.

After completing his grammar and humanities studies, he pursued legal studies with Antonio Martoro and philosophy with Giustiniano Maiorani, a follower of the Aristotelian tradition. He later abandoned his studies in jurisprudence to pursue medicine.

After the death of his father, he moved to Naples in 1654, where he was welcomed by Antonio Riccio, a physician and man of letters, recommended by the bishop of Sarno, Antonio Tura. Two years later, the plague struck: the man of letters, Riccio, succumbed to it, while Meninni survived.

Little is known about his private life, but he married Caterina di Scio in 1670, with whom he had three children. He was a follower of the medical philosophy of Aristotle and Galen, and he followed Carlo Pignataro, a physician of the Vicerealm, and did not attend the Neapolitan medical academy, where other important figures such as Cornelio, D'Andrea, and Di Capua were present.

Attack on Chemistry
In September 1663, the work "Discorso per difesa dell'arte chimica e de' professori di essa" (Speech in Defense of the Art of Chemistry and Its Professors) was published anonymously, without the author's name or place of publication. It is believed that one of the three physicians of the academy may have written it, but with greater certainty, it is attributed to Di Capua.

To prevent the prohibition of teaching chemistry in the academy, Di Capua proposed a union between chemistry and medicine, emphasizing the importance of the former, which could be useful in areas where epidemics frequently occur, including the Neapolitan countryside.

Meninni, using the pseudonym Moinero di Giarbo, published the work "Discorso nel quale si dimostra che i medicamenti spargirici sieno per lo più mal sicuri e pericolosi, e da non permettersi senza l'approvazione de' medici galenisti..." (Speech Demonstrating that Spagyric Medicines are Mostly Unsafe and Dangerous, and Should Not Be Used without the Approval of Galenic Physicians), in which he attacked and condemned the dangers of chemistry itself, calling it "unusual, new, and forbidden," contrary to the philosophical precepts of Aristotle. This attack was reiterated two years later when he contested the influence of the epidemic, likely originating from the waters of Lake Agnano.

Sebastiano Bartoli reaffirmed that chemistry was not dangerous, which prompted Meninni to attack him in the work "La morsa domatrice di Testa Libera nelle credenze di Agnano innocente" (The Taming Grip of Free Head in the Beliefs of Innocent Agnano) (Naples, 1665). Bartoli responded with "Frantumi della morsa di un bruto medico maniscalco..." (Fragments of the Grip of a Brute Farrier Doctor...), in which he attacked Meninni once again, reaffirming his previous stance.

However, later on, Meninni changed his opinion and began to follow modern methods, becoming friends with individuals such as Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz and joining the Society of the Carefree of Rossano.

Works
Many of Meninni's works were published and printed in the city of Naples, while some editions were duplicated in Genoa. Some of his writings remained unpublished or, if ready for printing, were never published.


 * "La fama" (1658)
 * "Ragguagli festivi" (1658)
 * "Discorso per difesa dell'arte chimica e de' professori di essa" (September 1663)
 * "Discorso nel quale si dimostra che i medicamenti spargirici sieno per lo più mal sicuri e pericolosi, e da non permettersi senza l'approvazione de' medici galenisti..." (1663)
 * "La morsa domatrice di Testa Libera nelle credenze di Agnano innocente" (1665)
 * "Lodi varie d'illustrissimi ingegni italiani in diverse occasioni dirizzate all'autore" (1666)
 * "Grillaia" (1668)
 * "L'Uomo di tre lettere" (1669)
 * "Poesie" (previous work revised and expanded) (1669)
 * "Poesie liriche" (1669)
 * "Censura del poetar moderno" (1672)
 * "Biblioteca Aprosiana" (1672)
 * "Affetti caritativi" (1674)
 * "Poesie" (Venetian edition) (1676)
 * "Ritratto del sonetto e della canzone" (1677, with a reprint in Venice in 1678)
 * "Risposta a gli Affetti caritativi del petulante ludimagistro G. Battista" (1679)
 * "Furti svelati nelle poesie meliche e negli epigrammi di G. Battista" (1679)
 * "Ritratto de' componimenti giocosi e gioco serii" (1680/1681)
 * "Miscellanea poetica" (1687)
 * "Maraviglie poetiche e le poesie varie" (1702)
 * "Della buona e della mala imitazione" (1703, never published)
 * "De sternutatione" (1703, unpublished)
 * "Vita di Aristide orator greco" (1703, unpublished)