title: [Michael Servetus' physiology in the light of his anthropology].
abstract: This essay starts with a short description of the life and works of Michael Servetus. Then the part of the innovator the Spanish physician played in describing the minor circulation is being examined alongside the contributions made by other contemporary physicians who tried to explain this physiological process. The ideas of the philosophical anthropology of Servetus are represented with special stress of the fact that beyond the theological frame, in his main opus Christianismi restitutio there are typical characteristics from the Renaissance (i.e. ethic relativism etc.). At the end it becomes clear that the description of the minor circulation is only to serve the purpose of explaining Servetus's theological thesis according to which the seat of the soul is in the blood. He stipulates that the "sensible soul" is to be found in the choroidal plexus of the ventricles of the brain or else in the pineal gland. It is one of the merits of Servetus, too, that he had foreseen the capillaries (capillares) which he describes as well in the case of the lung vessels as in the case of the choroidal plexus in the brain. The last part deals with the history and background of the new edition of Christianismi restitutio, published 1790 in Nuremberg, which again is based on some recent archival research.
mesh_terms: D000883:Anthropology / Q000266:history*; D049669:History, 16th Century; D010827:Physiology / Q000266:history*; D013030:Spain
vernacular_title: Michael Servetus' Physiologie im Lichte seiner Anthropologie.