Taddeo Alderotti
1210-1295
Taddeo Alderotti was an Italian physician and medical educator who founded a medical school in Bologna, Italy. He was a follower of Hippocrates, which was a departure from tradition in 13th century Italy that had adopted religious rather than natural explanations in their medical practices. He reintroduced Hippocratic practices of teaching students at the patient's bedside.
Alderotti applied the scholastic method to answering questions of speech and speech disorder. He argued, following humor theory of Hippocrates and Galen, that speech problems are caused by the excess moisture in the tongue or brain. When describing articulatory disorders (he called them problems with letters), he reasons that the ease of production of different speech sounds are associated with different amounts of excess moisture in the brain.
Among Alderotti's books was the Consilia (Advice) that contained case studies, methods of prevention, and dietary treatments. Besides his text on case studies, he published one of the first medical handbooks in Italian, the practical family physician's handbook: On the preservation of health (Sulla conservazione della salute).
Writings about Taddeo Alderotti
Siraisi Nancy, G. (1981). Taddeo Alderotti and his pupils. Princeton University Press.
Wollock, J. (1997). The noblest animate motion: Speech physiology and medicine in pre-Cartesian linguistic thought. (pp. 221-224). Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.