Pre-Vision and Pre-Vention. Labor, Environment and Medicine in Bernardino Ramazzini’s ‘De Morbis Artificum Diatriba’

“De morbis artificum diatriba” published in 1700 by the Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714) is the first systematic investigation about the relationship between jobs, bodies and diseases of the artisans. In the actual renaissance of studies about Ramazzini, this article outlines some pioneering epidemiological concepts from an epistemological viewpoint as well as some key words that for their explanatory and rhetoric power shed light on the essential innovative elements of the Diatriba and on the main features of Ramazzini’s life