Thomas Aquinas on Bodily Complexion

The medical theory of complexio was not confined to the restricted field of medicine during the Middle Ages: it conveyed a precise anthropology, in which not only the health of the human being comes into play, but, within certain limits, its very nature, or rather the way in which this specific nature manifests in a variety of individual dispositions. What each individual is, ultimately depends on her/his complexio. This peculiar medical anthropology crosses disciplinary boundaries and enters the strictly theological field, through a series of sometimes unpredictable implications that affect the place of human beings in the Universe, eschatology, demonology and even Christology. My contribution tries to give an account of some of these aspects with respect to Thomas Aquinas. The different places in which Thomas dwells on the theme of bodily complexio, and considers its different implications in both the intellectual and moral field, show a kind of assimilation of medical anthropology (indirectly through Galen, but mainly through Avicenna) within his own horizon of thought, constituted by Aristotle's natural philosophy and Aquinas own theological requirements.