Biography

Andrew Berns received his PhD in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011. He is currently preparing his doctoral dissertation, “The Natural Philosophy of the Biblical World: Jewish and Christian Physicians in Late Renaissance Italy,” for publication. During the 2011-2012 academic year he was Viterbi Visiting Professor of Mediterranean Jewish Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Following his fellowship at Villa I Tatti he will take up a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of South Carolina.

Project Summary

This project focuses on a Hebrew manuscript at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana that contains the letters of a Jewish physician who served a rural community outside of Rome. Study of these letters will augment our understanding of rural medicine in Renaissance Italy and the nature of Jewish-Christian relations in the sixteenth century.