CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Objectives: To analyze the uses and versions of the Hippocratic Oath during the Renaissance.Research methodology: For this analysis, Pubmed was accessed and the references utilized. Books, chapters, anthologies and articles, were used. The relation to the Hippocratic Oath would be represented by the name of the oath when it included the word ?Hippocratic?, or when the authors recognized having based their oaths on the Hippocratic Oath.Summary: The Hippocratic Oath, one of the first Western documents of medical ethics, was used through times in its original version, as translations, or as inspiration for the creation of new oaths. Before the Renaissance, medicine was influenced by Hippocratic and Galenic texts, thus, the original Hippocratic Oath was used, although with cultural and religious modifications. In the Renaissance, changes were made to the Hippocratic Oath, reflecting social and professional expectations. The Oaths had three functions: voluntary promise for practice, manifestation of a professional ethic to the public, and social and professional responsibility tradition. With the revival of classical learning, imposing the ideal of the Hippocratic physician, the oath was used in different ways: exhibited in the Library at the Oxford University; printed in the Calendar of the Liverpool University so students could ?read it with XXXX? and as the cover of the University of Jena (1558) and Freiburg (1570) Statute book, for their principles to be followed. In Germany, fidelity to Hippocrates was associated with loyalty to the state and university. At Heidelberg?s University (1558), the dean would take the Hippocratic Oath a month before assumption. Also, authors like Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) and Philipp Melanchton (1497-1560), mentioned the Oath in their writings and speeches during doctoral ceremonies. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Hippocratic Oath was translated from four Greek texts into Latin in a manuscript manner by: Nicholas Da Reggio, Nicholas Perroti, John Lombardi and Andrea Brenta. They did not differ in their content in relation to the Hippocratic Oath, except Perroti?s translation that censored contraception. Lombardi?s was written in hexameters. In Elizabethan times (16th Century), John Securis (1566), Thomas Newton (1586), John Read (1588), and Peter Lowe (1597) wrote four English versions of the Hippocratic Oath in their books. These versions differed between them. Some of the Oath?s commitments were interpreted differently and others were added. Newton added a commitment related to not charging fees to the poor and needy. Lowe mentioned patiently suffering abuse from the sick. Both included a commitment related to not delaying the cure. Lowe misinterpreted the commitment of secrecy, combining part of the previous with the subsequent commitment. Securis? version omitted parts from the teacher-student relationship and the imprecation, but emphasized the rest. He mentioned other rules not established in the Oath but in other Hippocratic, Galen, and his teacher Jacob Silvius? writings. The inclusion of these versions in the books aimed to improve the medical standards, stop the activity of healers, and achieve professional integrity and dignity. It is unclear if they were used in schools. Conclusions: With the revival of Greek and Roman culture in this time period, also Hippocratic ethic resurged through uses, versions and translations of the Oath. Therefore it was considered an ideal and an ethical code to follow, although its use was not systematic.