THE CASE OF DE PRAEDICTIONE MORUM NATURARUMQUE HOMINUM AND GUGLIELMO GRATAROLI’S CALVINIST PHYSIOGNOMY

This paper deals with Guglielmo Grataroli, an Italian Calvinist physician and religious exile, and his De praedictione morum naturarumque hominum (On the prediction of human behaviour and nature), a work on physiognomy published in Basel in 15541. It sheds light on the cultural, scientific, and religious framework of a medical doctor, who was considered a dangerous heretic in Italy but a strong orthodox, and even an integralist, in Basel where he migrated2. It examines the tortuous paths which led a Calvinist exile physician to become involved in the lively intellectual context of Basel, considering the intersections between his scientific work and his religious approach. Although the latter was not in line with the tolerant one embraced by Italian exiles in Basel, Grataroli’s innovative scientific activity matched the efforts put forward in the Swiss city to renew the philosophical-scientific paradigm. From this premise, the article examines this mid-sixteenth-century treatise in the wider perspective of the relationship between the reformation of knowledge and the reformation of religion.