About

I am currently a fourth-year PhD student in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick. My research in the field of ancient medicine is supervised by Dr. Caroline Petit (Department of Classics) and Dr. Freya Harrison (School of Life Sciences).

I completed my BA degree in Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Verona in 2013 and then I received a MA degree summa cum laude in Classical Languages and Literature and Ancient History from the University of Padova in 2018 with the thesis “Il De usu respirationis di Galeno: traduzione e saggio di commento”. Before studying Classics, I received a BSc degree (2004) and an MSc degree (2006) in Molecular Biology from the University of Padova.

Research

My main interests are ancient medicine and pharmacology, and my area of research represents an interdisciplinary endeavour and a collaboration between humanities and sciences. My project is a search for new plant-derived antimicrobial agents in ancient medical texts but represents at the same time an in-depth exploration of theories and practices in Graeco-Roman pharmacology. The focus is on compound remedies, in particular wound healing formulations in the texts of the Greek physician Galen of Pergamon (129-216 AD) and on the scientific aspects of the use of natural substances and of their combinations. My project combines textual analysis of several Galenic writings, experimental archaeology to better understand the chemistry of the substances and the procedures described by Galen, as well as microbiological testing to evaluate antimicrobial activities of ancient pharmaceutical formulations. This study benefits from explorations into ancient botany, ethnobotany, and ethnopharmacology and from collaborations with chemists and biologists. Such a project can contribute to a new research strategy which exploits historical texts for new antimicrobial drugs, but at the same time can shed light on fundamental though unexplored aspects of ancient pharmacology and medicine.

Other roles

• Sessional Teacher, Hellenistic Science, University of Warwick, 2022-2023.
• Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant, Greek Language for Beginners, University of Warwick, 2020-2021.
• Co-organiser of the International Reading Group ‘Theophrastus’ Historia Plantarum Book 9’, University of Warwick, 2020-2021 (online).
• Co-organiser of the Postgraduate Colloquium, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick, June 2021 (online).
• Visiting Student, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin/Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Wissensgeschichte des Altertums/Institut für Klassische Philologie (Prof. Philip van der Eijk’s Group), September 2021- August 2022.
• Visiting Student, Alchemies of Scent Project (Dr. Sean Coughlin’s Group), Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, December 2021 and January 2023.

Papers presented

• From the Library to the Lab…and Back: Graeco-Roman Medicine as a Potential Treasure in Drug Discovery. Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, 18 April 2023.
• How to Compound a Remedy: Galen’s Method and Instructions to Combine Multiple Ingredients. British Society of the History of Pharmacy Annual Conference, Oxford, 31 March – 2 April 2023.
• Galen On Compound Remedies: Decoding Ancient Recipes to Reconstruct and Test a Pharmaceutical Formulation with Antimicrobial Potential. Work in Progress Seminars, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick, 18 January 2023.
• Galen On Compound Remedies: from the Creation of an Effective Pharmaceutical Formulation in Antiquity to its Reconstruction and Efficacy Assessment in Current Biomedical Research. Workshop ‘Medical Testing: Past and Present’, Department of History, University of Warwick, 1 December 2022.
• Compound Remedies After Galen. TKE 2022 Workshop ‘Medieval Fitness. The search for well-being and health between Middle Ages and Modern Era’, Universidad de Córdoba, 6-7 September 2022.
• Compound remedies after Galen. Workshop ‘Malleable Texts, Fluid Authorships: Galenic Medicine and Late Antiquity, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 7-8 July 2022.
• Simple and Compound Remedies in Galen’s Thought. AlchemEast project Monthly Seminar ‘What’s in a Recipe? Epistemology and practical understanding of recipe literature’, Università di Bologna, 28 June 2022.
• Distillation in the Graeco-Roman World: Production and Fractionation of Resinous Substances for Pharmaceutical Use. Colloquia Ceranea IV, University of Łódź, 12-14 May 2022 (online).
• Distillation in the Graeco-Roman World: Production and Fractionation of Resinous Substances for Pharmaceutical Use. Alchemies of Scent project Seminars, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, 7 February 2022 (online).
• Distillation in the Graeco-Roman World: Production and Fractionation of Resinous Substances for Pharmaceutical Use, Work in Progress Seminars, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick, 2 February 2022 (online).
• Distillation in the Graeco-Roman World: Production and Fractionation of Resinous Substances for Pharmaceutical Use, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Klassische Philologie, Ancient Medicine Colloquium, 31 January 2022.
• Correcting Other Physicians’ Errors: Galen and the Individualisation of Pharmacological Treatment, Colloque international ‘Dénoncer ou dissimuler? L’erreur médicale dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge. Grèce, Rome, Égypte, Proche-Orient’, Lyon, 28-29 October 2021.
• Wound and Skin Infection Treatment in Galen: Potential Antimicrobial Substances for Drug Development, ‘Conference in Classics and Ancient History’, Universidade de Coimbra, 22-25 June 2021 (online).
• Wound and Skin Infection Treatment in Galen: Potential Antimicrobial Substances for Drug Development. Conference ‘Tradition of Materia Medica 300 BCE – 1300 CE’, Institut für Klassische Philologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 16-18 June 2021 (online).
• Wound and Skin Infection Treatment in Galen: Analysis of Potential Antimicrobial Substances for Drug Development, Classics Postgraduate Colloquium, University of Warwick, 9-10 June 2021 (online).
• Theophrastus’ Botany and Galen’s Pharmacology: Collection and Use of Plant Secretions in Antiquity, Work in Progress Seminars, University of Warwick, 5 May 2021 (online).
• Galen’s Pharmacological Texts as a Potential Source of New Plant-Derived Antimicrobial Agents.

Publications

Marai, Manuela. Review of “TIME IN THE ANCIENT WORLD - (P.N.) Singer Time for the Ancients. Measurement, Theory, Experience. (Chronoi 3.) Pp. Xviii 186, b/w & Colour Ills, Map. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2022. Paper, £38, €41.95, US$48.99. ISBN: 978-3-11-075192-5.” The Classical Review, 2023, 1–3.

Marai, Manuela, “Galen’s impact: wound treatment in De compositione medicamentorum per genera and beyond”, in Javier Lopez Rider (ed.), Medieval Fitness. The search for well-being and health between Middle Ages and Modern Era, Oxford: Archaeopress (submitted).

Public engagement

Blog post: ‘A green plaster for wound healing: antimicrobial formulations and the use of plant resins in Graeco-Roman medicine’. Material Musings Blog, University of Warwick, March 2023. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/research/publicengagementimpact/material_musings/2023/#March

Awards

• IAS award, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Warwick, January 2023. Project title: Reconstruction and testing of an ancient pharmacological formulation (2nd cent. AD) to determine its potential antimicrobial activity for future drug development.
• Erasmus Scholarship, September 2021- July 2022
• PhD funded by EU Chancellor’s Scholarship

Qualifications

• MA Classical Languages and Literatures and Ancient History, University of Padova (2018).
• BA Classical Languages and Literatures, University of Verona (2013).
• MSc Molecular Biology, University of Padova (2006).
• BSc Molecular Biology, University of Padova (2004).