Arnau de Vilanova

Arnau de Vilanova (c.1240–1311) was a Catalan physician, alchemist, theologian, and political critic who served as court doctor to kings and popes while openly attacking corruption in both church and state - wikipedia

He believed medicine, ethics, and governance were inseparable. Societies, like bodies, could fall ill through excess, imbalance, and denial. Arnau’s writings combined empirical observation with moral urgency, making him a dangerous figure to entrenched power.

Arnau repeatedly clashed with authorities for predicting institutional collapse and calling for reform grounded in care for the vulnerable. His work places him firmly in the lineage of Governance First thinking, where systems are judged by their effects on human well-being.

In science fiction, Arnau becomes an interstellar public health dissident, diagnosing failing planetary systems and exposing empires that prioritise stability over life.

# Grave Arnau de Vilanova **does not have a known grave**. He **died at sea in 1311**, off the coast near **Genoa**, while travelling on a diplomatic mission. As a result, there is **no recorded burial site or surviving tomb**, and his body was almost certainly lost to the sea. In Hitchhiker terms: Arnau is one of those figures whose *absence of a grave* fits his role perfectly — a physician and dissident who belongs nowhere permanently, not even in death.