Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities Necessary Art
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Mar 17, 2026 A wild run through medieval papal chaos, including a 20-year-old pope, resignations, sales of office, and three rival claimants. A detour to ancient Egypt spotlights Imhotep’s shift from architect to empirical healer, surgical techniques, and his rise to near-deification. Short, strange stories from history that reveal power, scandal, and early medicine.
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Benedict IX's Three Nonconsecutive Reigns
- Aaron Mahnke recounts Benedict IX becoming pope at 20 and the papal turmoil that followed, including three claimants to the papacy by 1046.
- Benedict resigned, sold the papacy to his godfather Gregory VI, returned twice, and was ultimately deposed by Emperor Henry III's council.
Imhotep As A Proto-Empiricist
- Aaron Mahnke highlights Imhotep as an early empiricist who recorded treatments and insisted physicians follow observed outcomes rather than superstition.
- Imhotep framed his methods as teachings from Thoth and forced other doctors to adopt evidence-based practices.
Imhotep's Hippo Mauling Treatment
- Aaron Mahnke describes Imhotep treating a hippo mauling by amputating a mangled leg, cauterizing with a hot poker, using oiled eel's head on lacerations, and draining an abdominal swelling.
- These trial-and-error procedures were recorded in his medical texts and used for millennia.
