0. Socio-cultural background and general aims of the study

The core of the present study is an investigation on eighteenth-century medical writing, particularly concerning the elaboration and the communication of medicine in reference works such as universal dictionaries of arts and sciences, medical dictionaries, and handbooks. Most of the vernacular texts under scrutiny here were issued in the second half of the century, a period in which the advancements in medical research, medical education and medical practice, as well as a growing awareness of..