Once again on the Empress Zoe: Women, dermatology, cosmetics, and materia medica (medical matter) in the ancient world.

Background: An article published in 2012 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology discussed the historical sources presenting the Byzantine Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita as an expert in cosmetic and pharmacological remedies that could give their users a youthful appearance and a kind of eternal youth. However, it did not take into account a dermatological recipe attributed to Zoe which text transmission has preserved.

Aims: To examine some ingredients of Zoe's recipe from a historical medical point of view and contextualize the text in the tradition of ancient medical matter, physiology of aging, and gender pharmacological skills.

[ANTONIO SCARPA IN HIS FIRST YEARS AT MODENA UNIVERSITY (1772-1776)].

Antonio Scarpa undertakes his teacher's role at Modena University (1772) in favourable conditions for disciplines renewals in medicine and carrying out of political and administrative reforms, also affecting health professions. Besides the establishment of basic educational teachings for doctors, surgeons and midwives, the construction of the anatomical theater, the involvement of high education and intellectuals in sciences and humanities in an extensive program of renewal of higher education, the promulgation of ducal provisions aims to rule the practice of medicine, at any level.

[Philosophy and science in the work of Bernardino Ramazzini].

The treatise DMA focuses, in particular, on diseases caused by the exposition or the contact with chemical substances. The aetiological theories and the therapeutic strategies proposed by the author, show his acquaintance with the XVllth and XVIllth centuries' latrochemistry.

[Some notations on medical texts in Byzantium (IV-XII cent)].

The aim of this article is outlining some of the most significant issues of the Byzantine medicine. In particular, it is highlighted the 'diagnostic of the fluids', an elaborate and meaningfull procedure applied to detect the state of the humors.

[The usages of human blood in late medieval alchemical treatises].

The "Epistula de sanguine humano" attributed to Arnald da Villa Nova envisages the use of distilled human blood for therapeutic purposes. Similar practice, with some substantial variants, can be also found in the traditional usages of ancient magic and popular medicine.

[The question of "Applied Sciences" in Italy, after the unification, and the contribution of Francesco Selmi to forensic medicine].

In the Italian intellectual outline of the second half of the XIX century Francesco Selmi stands out for his discoveries in organic and inorganic chemistry as well as in toxicology. He also addressed his efforts to promote the relationship between science and industry.