The idea of scientific progress in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

The author reviews the development of the idea of scientific progress from Graeco-Roman antiquity to the Middle Ages and shows that from Xenophanes (6th century BC) on, the notion of progress can be found in the works of many authors, including physicians, throughout the centuries. Even if at first the concept was often rather inchoate and limited to what we would call technology, in the Middle Ages the notion of scientific progress in general and in medicine in particular became closer to the modern one.