sign in sign up
<<
Home , Alessandro Achillini, Luigi Galvani, University of Bologna, University of Padua

THE ORIGIN OF THE OF By GU1SEPPE FRANCHINI, M.D.

MODENA, fall of the Roman Em- cluded woods, and kept their culture I pire, which had reached a alive. It is, however, well known that I very high degree of civiliza- Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, --tion, determined the complex though he himself could not read or phenomenon of civil decadence that write, protected Cassiodorus, Enno- found favorable development in Chris- dius and Boethius who cultivated tianity’s teachings of renunciation. the study of Roman literature, while The Dark Ages followed, during he himself took pride in erecting which hordes of hungry and blood- magnificent edifices. thirsty barbarians took advantage At Bologna, the “School,” so-called and invaded Italy, being attracted for lack of a better term, was estab- by its temperate climate and the lished at the initiative of a few cul- opulence of the fields. Goths, Huns, tured men; it was entirely private, Vandals and Longbards, descended without any control of the princes from the northern steppes, and made who, given to warfare, despised any of Italy a battlefield of passions and and every form of activity foreign plunders; they were real barbarians, to military affairs. Literature was not in the strict meaning of the not considered an occupation fit for word, but because of their lack of a man of the world and consequently, every form of civilization. This flagel- it could be pursued only by the lum Dei (scourge of God) was in open clergy. Since everything centered in contrast to the Latin domination , scholars shut themselves up over Hellas and the Hellenic occu- in the inviolable recesses of religious pation of the Pharaonic Empire, where communities where peace and security the conquerors were won by the turned their minds to meditation. civilization of the subdued people. In Abelard’s and Friar Benedict’s schools their case, literature and the arts at Troyes originated in this way. The llourished, and found, through the new Cenacle of Montecassino in the fifth rulers, not only greatness but further century, the first example in Italy impulse toward progress. perhaps, of organized study with magis- While the Ptolomeys, succeeding terial direction, closely simulated Alexander the Great, were creating the Justinian school of . Saint a cultural center in Alexandria of Benedict’s cenobites did not disdain Egypt, the northern barbarians were to teach the medical art, being pos- scouring the peninsula with constant sibly the forerunners of the famous conflagrations and plunders. What- teachers of the Salernitan School. In ever part of the immense Greek- the year 802, Charles the Great, in Roman intellectual patrimony we now the first Imperial Edict, made of possess, we owe to those who still Salerno already a well-renowned burning with the sacred fire of the school of medical disciplines, the best imperial civilization, met secretly in known center of . This edict churches and monasteries or in se- was the only one of its kind until four centuries later. Dante reminds . . . the professor was not originally us that Parisian schools were confined the officer of any public institution: he to vicus straminis (Straw Street) where was simply a private-adventure Lecturer

teachers and pupils sat on straw in —like the Sophist of ancient Greece or curious places in which in parte the Rhetor of ancient Rome—whom a superiore magistri legebant, in inferiore number of independent gentlemen of all meretrices officia turpitudinis exerce- ages between seventeen and forty had bant . . . and inter se et cum biminibus hired to instruct them. litigabant (on the second floor teachers lectured and on the first prostitutes The School of Bologna, thus formed, practiced their obnoxious business developed and flourished as a private . . . and wrangled with men and institution, not however lodged in among themselves). ill-famed houses, as in Paris. In the fifteenth century we find artists study- The Stu di o of Bol og na ing in different places from ; Bologna did not enjoy any greater the use of straw, far from being privileges. Here, as elsewhere, teach- banned, must have been usual, since ing began as a private initiative and as fate as 1405 it served the Odophredus cites quidam dominus as an argument in favor of antici- Pepo (a certain Sir Pepo) who cepit pating Christmas vacations which auctoritate sua legere in legibus (began were demanded proiciendo paleas vel with his authority to read in the faciendo aliquem actum per quem ), and was soon followed by impediatur doctorem legere (by throw- Yrnerius with the same teaching. In ing straws or by doing some other the year 1000, as H. Rashdall re- act to prevent the from lectur- minds us: ing). To this same year (1405) belongs the first edict of the College of and prosperous circumstances. The and of Arts that prohibited elect youth of Europe convened in lecturing in other localities than those this city. It is estimated that no less

expressly indicated and listed, in the vicinity of which no noisy business or profession could be carried on. Students paid the teacher a fee pro suo salario et collecta bancharum (for his salary for collecting funds) and were brought together in hospices or than 10,000 German students were colleges where, through statutory pro- enrolled there between the years 1289 visions going back to the year 1284, and 1796, at a time when such Uni- they enjoyed every sort of privilege versity institutions were not yet and protection. The hospitality offered known abroad, and teaching was students and their respective families imparted only to the wealthy who by the City governments was generous could allow themselves the luxury of a indeed, and it aimed at making pos- preceptor. sible for the University a more vigor- In the fifteenth century every ous growth ut tesaurum preciosissimum Italian city had very flourishing (as a very precious treasure). It was Superior Institutes, while in northern lawful for teachers to board students, the first elementary schools but severe penalties threatened them, were timidly beginning to appear. when they violated the duties of For this reason the flower of German hospitality or lectured in another nobility and talent, among whom the school. highest prelates, the greatest princes Unlike the other European Uni- and literary men, drew from Italy versities, the students of Bologna and from Bologna the solid cultural were distinguished by their maturity foundations that kept alive the torch of their knowledge, deepest redress debate in the Public Square. A statute of the oppressed against the bloody of 1378 ordered quod nullus possit arrogance of the conquerors. legere de mane Medicinam nisi Bononi-

Students grouped themselves in ensis verus (that no one but a associations, each having a leader thorough bred citizen of Bologna according to their country of origin, could teach Medicine in the morning), (Lmiversitates scholarium). Citramon- and this provision was obeyed till tani (living this side of the Alps) the 1459, when it was revoked. Other were called and Ultramontani ordinances prescribed the ordinary (living beyond the Alps), the for- and the extraordinary lecture-books eigners, who were subdivided by and hours with the view of having nationalities, each having their re- the forenoon reserved for ordinary spective Consiliarii (Advisers). In subjects. For the extraordinary lec- turn, among these nationalities, a tures, given in the evening, only was elected who had civil students could be employed who were jurisdiction in controversies, conferred duly chosen and salaried by the City with the City magistrates, elected which, with the statute of 1410, the Lecturers and provided for their assumed also the burden of the salary compensation and for school-books, for the Lecturers selected by the which were purchased or rented from College, provided that they the Stationarii (stationers). were of Bologna. The audience was often so numerous This is the first step toward State in Bologna as to justify the order control and official recognition of the given to the Lecturers in 1474, as School which, from a free and private they did in Siena, to assemble and institution was thus changed into a dependent official organization. The Felix Plater dug graves with his last to receive proper legislation were hands; at funerals coffins were robbed the school-buildings, an indispensable of their contents; bodies were stolen

necessity for the teaching of medicine, from private residences; teachers were if not for letters and law. Practical tried for the disinterment of an exe- , at least, required special cuted criminal and consequent dis- places for the keeping and section of the body cum rasuris et of the bodies. The task of providing cultellis et alii artificiis (with razors, for such a civil need was indeed not knives and other means). The an easy one: ignorance, sentimental- chronicles of the times are full of ism and religious fanaticism were such news, but it was not easy to jointly opposed to it. The earnest find the parts of bodies carried away students, in retaliation, organized veri- because they were hidden in private table punitive expeditions snatching, houses, where the courses in demon- carrying off, exhuming and mutilating strative anatomy were given. The bodies. Lecturers vied with each other in In the year 1727 in Bologna a comic forming their museums, the only place note was not wanting in this per- from which they could daily absorb plexing situation: Vesalius was repre- school knowledge. sented contending with dogs and Where the intervention of govern- vultures over the remains of executed ments was delayed the devotees of a criminals at Montfaucon; Valsava special compensated for this was represented disinterring at night lack by founding an Academy in time horribly putrefied corpses; stu- almost every city. Thus was founded dents were forced to return to rela- the “Cimento” in Florence through tives the bodies carried away or they the efforts of the de Medici family, the were forced to take the bodies back “ Pontaniana” in Naples, the “ Pla- to the places where they had found toniea” in Florence, the “Cosentina” them, particularly if near to a church. in Coscnza, the “Lincei” and the “Riva” in Rome, and the “Massari” logia et de re diplomatica (Chronology in Bologna, contemporary of the and Diplomacy) had short duration. “Philosophers” or “Traccia” of the Metrology and geometry were first included in astrology and later, mathe- matics, algebra, mechanics and hy- drometry were added. The chairs of physics and chemistry were estab- lished in 1737, that of optics in 1756, and that of agriculture in 1781. From 1571 on anatomy was taught sepa- rately from , in which it had until then been included, (and a few years later the teaching of de sim- plicibus medicinalibus was given a new title: ad philosophiam naturalem ordinariam [de fossilibus, de plantis, de animalibus]). The chair ad operationes cbirurgicas was instituted in 1733, that of lithotomy and ophthalmology in 1765, that of veterinary medicine and surgery in 1784 and, finally, that of de variolorum inoculatione in same city. We owe to these private 1770. institutions the rending asunder from the mind of mankind, the long night Some of Its Out st an di ng Tea ch er s of ignorance and barbarism. Many of the Lecturers promoted to the professorship, with the title of Sub jec ts Tau gh t Doctors, were foreigners and salaried In the fifteenth century the subjects by the Commune or Gabel, and it taught in Bologna were divided into is not difficult to imagine how they two groups: those pertaining to Law, were antagonized by the native Doc- and those pertaining to the Art; tors who claimed the exclusive right among the latter were included theo- of teaching. retical and practical medicine, sur- The School of the Arts and there- gery, moral and natural , fore of Medicine, flourished about astrology, logic, rhetoric, and Ars two centuries later than that the Notaria (Notarial Art) which, after Lawyers, that is, in the thirteenth the year 1357, was assigned to the century. It had very capable scholars lawyers. A chair of Greek lectures in anatomy among whom are particu- was added in 1455, while that of larly mentioned: Taddeo of Florence, rhetoric had, in 1439, already been whom Dante speaks of in the xn divided into poetry, grammar and Canto of Paradise. His Consilia medi- Lectura Humanitatis which rose to cinalia, which with a total of 156 such an importance in the fifteenth having been collected into the “Vati- century as to attract many foreign can Code” 2418, are still well known. students. The teaching of Hebrew, Taddeo was the true founder of a Chaldean, Arabic and of De chrono- school which had many followers, and drew from Boethius Latin doctrines. Taddeo’s pupils were, also, the Dino del Garbo, who commented on famous surgeon Lanfranco of Milan, his Aphorisms, and his son, Tommaso author of “ Ars completa totius chirur- del Garbo, who held the chair of surgery and published “Summa medi- cinalis,” were his pupils, as well as Guglielmo of Saliceto, the anatomist, clinician, sober reasoner, surgeon and author of “Summa conservationis et curationis” and of “Chirurgia. ’’ An- other pupil of Taddeo was Gentile of Foligno who published under the same title of “Consilia medicinalia” used by his teacher, a collection of practical observations. He also com- mented on ’s art, ’ and ’s Prognostics, and wrote a book on the black plague of which he was a victim in the practice of his studies. Still another pupil of Taddeo was Bartolomeo of Varignana who con- tinued the work “Consilia medicin- alia” and wrote the “Quaestiones super libros Galeni de complexion- ibus” (questions on Galen’s books about complexions). He was one of the most reputable physicians of the thirteenth century and the first one, perhaps, to obtain permission from giae” (Complete work on Surgery) the Senate of Bologna to dissect a who taught in , and Ugone human body publicly. The experi- Benci of Siena who taught medicine mental trend established by him in in Bologna, Pavia, Parma, Florence, anatomy found followers in the cele- anatomy in , and commented brated Mundino de Luici, otherwise in “Consilia” on Hippocrates, Galen called Raimondo, and in Nicolo’ Bcr- and Avicenna’s art. trucci Lombardo, both Taddeo’s pupils Between the fourteenth and the who continued the work of their fifteenth century we find Pietro di Azzolino of Argelata, to whom a teacher. Mundino, too, wrote his “Con- statue has been erected in the Ana- silia medicinalia ad varios morbos” tomical Theatre of the Archigym- (Medicinal advices for various dis- nasium. He wrote six books full of eases), and commentaries on Galen observations on “Chirurgia” (Sur- besides a book on Botany; his major gery), and embalmed the body of work, however, is the “Anatomia, ” Alexander v leaving with us which was adopted as textbook in a complete description of the process. all schools. Giovanni of Concorreggio who also taught in Milan and Pavia left us omy, and describer of the parotid several interesting works: “Tractatus glands, cecum, choledochus duct, cere- de febribus, ” “Methodus mcdcndi,” bral and spinal , malleus and

and “Summula de curis febrium.” incus of the tympanum; and Jacopo We are told that Gabriele Gerbi, Berengario of Carpi, Mondino’s pupil, philosopher, anatomist and physician, brought much honor upon the Bologna of whom we know several works: School (1470-1530). This year is the “Cautelae medicorum, ” “ Quaestiones four hundredth anniversary of his metaphisicae, ” “Gerontocomia” and death. He taught first in Pavia and, “Opus anatomiae,’’ was called to perhaps, also in Padua and Paris, Constantinople to treat a Turkish then in Bologna, and dissected plurima gentleman of high rank and that, centena cadaverum (more than one having cured him, was returning to hundred bodies), as related by him- his own country when his patient self. Of his works the most famous had a relapse and died. This gentle- are the “Commentaria” on Mondino’s man’s sons, suspecting that his death anatomy and the “Isagogae. ” It was due to the administration ol is said that he, as well as Vesalius, poison by Gerbi, overtook him at Falloppio and Michelangelo, prac- sea, sawed his accompanying son ticed vivisection, an argument desti- alive and inflicted the same penalty tute of every foundation as afterward on him. His contemporaries were demonstrated.1 of noble family, 1 See Roth in . Vivisection lecturer of anatomy in Padua and des Menschen in sechzehnten Jahrhundert. Bologna, author of treatises of anat- Berlin, 1892, p. 473, App. xi. Bartolomeo Maggi was held in published a work in two volumes of great esteem; he was an archiater of rare value. Esthetic and repair sur- Pope Julius in, surgeon and professor gery (plastic surgery) was initiated of anatomy, who published an inter- by him. His contemporary and friend esting work on fire-arm wounds. Ulisse was whose vast Aldrovandi was the prince of natural- culture was called “frightful.” He ists, a miracle of doctrine, of whom the taught from 1537 to the beginning of possesses the the year 1600, always to a large immense volumes on his anatomical audience, in the schools of Padua, studies upon animals and his entire Bologna and , and was physician rich museum of natural history. to Maximilian 11 of Germany and to In the sixteenth century we have Pope Gregorius xm. He died in Volcher Coiter, a German, who for a 1606 leaving many remarkable works short time was lecturer of anatomy in on surgery. The century was also Bologna and published there and in illumined by the genius of Fabrizio Nurnberg two notable works; and d’Acquapendente and Falloppio of then we have the most distinguished the School of Padua, and of Barto- Andrea Vesalio who taught in Padua, lomeo Eustachio of the University of Bologna and Pisa, besides in Paris Rome. and other European cities. And the long list still continues. G. Cesare Aranzio, Maggi’s nephew, The end of the sixteenth century is lectured in Bologna from 1556 to honored by Girolamo Cardano, Gian- 1588, and created the chair of ordinary francesco Rota and his son Flamino, anatomy, apart from surgery. He Antonio and Michele Sacchi, Fran- published works on the human fetus, cesco and Achille Muratori, and by tumors, anatomical observations re- Bartoletti who left many books on markable for exactness of conceptions, medicine and anatomy when still especially in the part referring to very young, and who died of the intrauterine life. plague. The glorious list is closed by His contemporary was Costanzo Gianbattista Cortesi who taught ana- Varolio of Bologna a clever professor tomy in Messina and Bologna until of surgery and, later, of anatomy. In his death in 1634. He contributed 1566 he was crowned with the laurel many works on medicine and surgery, wreath and a statue in his honor was the most famous of which is “Mis- erected in the cellaneorum decades denae,” men- of the Archigymnasium. For his dis- tioned by Haller, published in a coveries on the brain and the whole very limited edition. nervous system, the special senses, In the seventeenth century the the larynx and the genitourinary chair of medicine passed to the organs he well deserves being con- Scotchman Georges Scharpes (Scar- sidered one of the most outstanding pius) and to the Irishman Neil Glacan, anatomists of his century. while Adriano Spigelia, professor at Another remarkable man was Gas- Padua’s School, was rising and with pare Tagliacozzo in whose memory him Carlo Ruini, the keenest zooto- a statue was also erected in the mist of his time. When Harvey, then Archigymnasium. He taught medicine twenty, was studying anatomy in the and anatomy from 1570 to 1599 and , Ruini published the “Anatomy of the Horse,” com- mony to the vast and profound critical posed of five illustrated volumes in doctrine of the compiler. His friend which the study of the heart and of and associate in the investigations the circulatory movement of the blood was Francesco Albertini, also of Mal- was fully described. pighi’s school, a modest and erudite A new era was at this time initiated clinician and anatomist, very sober with the creation of the “Accademia in his writings: his “Commentario” de Notomia” which had been wanted (Commentary) is so full of profound by Bartolomeo Massari, and was anatomical observations as to deserve afterward restricted to nine competent its being placed among its greatest scholars designated by the name of contemporaries. Other celebrated Coro Anatomico (Choir of Anatomy). scientific contributors were: Pietro Among Massari’s pupils are found Nanni, discoverer of the glandular Giambattista Capponi, Carlo Fracas- follicles and of the pleural alterations, sati and, above all, a famous physician, a prose writer who brought honor to the Bologna and a poet; Matteo Bazzani, a philoso- School and to Italy, about whom I pher, and Jacopo Pozzi, a poet and a had the pleasure of writing a modest keen and expert observer. Ferdinando biography in 1928 on the occasion Guglielmini preceded Haller in the of the three hundredth anniversary study of the function of the intercostal of his birth, 1628. In his name and muscles. Gusmano Galeazzi, prosector, in his life is contained a monument chemist, physicist, naturalist and ge- of greatness whose size I might reduce ologist; G. Battista Stancari, chemist in an attempt to summarize his and keen of the meninges; complete work. Sbaraglia, an anatomist Giacinto Vogli, the author of “An- of the old school, was his most thropogonia”; Paolo Balbi, physicist; obstinate antagonist, whose name I Giovanni Molinelli, who studied the shall merely mention. cerebral lobes and the decussations In 1697 the office of Anatomical of the cranial nerves; Galli Bibbiena, Prosector was instituted and entrusted biologist and naturalist; Giovanni to Anton Maria Valsalva, Malpighi’s Manzolini, surgeon and anatomist; pupil and teacher of the celebrated Carlo Mondini whose study of the Morgagni of the Paduan School, a appendix we have; Antonio Caldani, member of the Royal Society of an ardent upholder of Haller; and, London. An episode of his life is the finally, , the famous disinterment of a body in advanced demonstrator of animal , state of putrefaction upon which the who closed the cycle of the old lec- alteration of a trunk had to be turers and marked, with Volta, the studied. He died of apoplexy at beginning of a new civilization for the fifty-seven but will live forever be- world. Galvani was an anatomist and cause of his work “De Aure Humana obstetrician, besides being physicist, Tractatus” (on the human ear). He chemist and meteorologist. divided this work into two parts; I would like to add here the names anatomy and physiology, while his of two women, Laura Bassi, the famous notes from which Morgagni teacher of , who drew his “ Duodevigenti Epistolae held the chair of Universal Philosophy Anatomicae” are an imposing testi- from 1732 to 1778, and that of Anna Morandi Manzolini, who was en- in lines and, following it the chapel, trusted with the modeling of the rich in ornaments and paintings among anatomical preparations. which is the Annunciation of Calvart. On the sides of this Oratory are the The Arc hi gy mna siu m (th e Ori gin al halls for the Rectors, Priors and Uni ve rsi ty Buil din g ) Counsellors, beautifully decorated with fresco paintings. Everywhere in Among the most famous monuments the courtyard, corridors and on the of the period, the one still existing, walls of the stairways and meeting perpetuating the history of the glorious rooms there is a profusion of Doctors’ vicissitudes of Bologna’s School, is and Pupils’ blazons. On the first the Archigymnasium Palace. It was floor, above the chapel, is the “Ana- erected through the indomitable will tomical Theatre” or Dissecting Room. of Cardinal Cesi, Bish- We, accustomed to the naked sim- op of Narni, when papal Vice Legate plicity of the modern anatomical and governing in the name of the schools, remain very much astonished celebrated Carlo Borromeo (nephew at the sumptuousness of the seats and of Pope Pius iv) who played a very the wood carvings decorating the important part in the resolutions of walls and the ceiling. A rich bald- the Council of Trent. He was a very achin, supported by two life-size learned prelate, a scholar of the civil wooden figures, showing the first and canon law, and deplored very layer of muscles, indicates the lec- much the fact that a school so famous turer’s chair. Other life-size statues throughout the civilized world had to and busts of celebrated physicians occupy rooms in very modest houses and anatomists decorate the walls, and pay rent besides. He wanted mute witnesses for centuries of ana- everything united under one roof tomical meetings, called functions, and as he knew how to find the neces- which were attended by the highest sary financial means, asking compul- city authorities and a long retinue sory contributions even from students of ladies in great pomp. These func- and professors, just so he knew how to tions lasted ten successive days while take personal control of the construc- in the chapel below suffrage-masses tion. Thus in a little more than one were celebrated. and a half years the Archigymnasium Another city solemnity was the was erected, a sumptuous monument preparation of the Theriaca, the uni- of architecture and one of the worth- versal panacea, that attracted the iest palaces of the period. The funds most learned and elegant public. It and the plans which had been reserved took place just in the center of the for the construction of another build- courtyard, the entire portico of which ing, Saint Petronius’ Church, were had been decorated with damasks used for this purpose. As a result of for the occasion. The ceremony was this the church remains incomplete, presided over by doctors and phar- a fact worthy of note when one con- macists in rich paludamenta busying siders that it was due to a prelate. themselves with caldrons and stills, The front of the Archigymnasium is all intent in examining with devout marked by a long portico; inside next scruple the ingredients used and the to the lobby is a courtyard, austere process followed, while the multitude of liveried servants and chevaliers among the students, a sense of rebel- in powdered wigs helped them. lion against the old pontifical regime. At present, in the upper halls of The University corporations were the Archigymnasium, a library is abolished, privileges destroyed and located and in every part of it, long the coats of arms removed. The rows of legates’, teachers’, and pupils’ Archigymnasium became the seat of coats of arms grace their vast walls: the constitutional circle and after- these were saved from destruction ward, completely abandoned, ran the by the good sense of the people when risk of being transformed into a toward the end of the seventeenth synagogue. It was, however, used for century the ill-intentioned republican the elementary school for thirty years, revolutionary spirit of equality was that is, until 1838, when it was oc- raging. cupied by the Library. But the living character of the past When we observe today the serious cannot always prevent the decadence self-possession of the students, moved of posterity: a strange phenomenon by respect, in those imposing walls, that falls fatally upon the ancestors’ every corner of which is a book of greatness. Hence we witnessed in history, we can hardly understand the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- how the very same places could have turies, as I have already stated, a become the stage of the impertinent progressive decline in education which racket of students with the Gabel; became infiltrated with the vain ap- and we are inclined to meditate on pearances that characterized the the fatal course of those centuries society of the seventeenth century, when laxity of customs and of consti- whence the sanctity of teaching was tuted powers, a natural reaction lessened by the weakness of the against tyranny, remained the arbiter times. Professors, colleges and insti- of history. The thousands of students tutions deteriorated; pupils decreased now annually congregating in the in numbers and those few whose University of Bologna again under a youth did not favor meditation, aban- free regime pass by almost uncon- doned themselves to every sort of scious of the history of the austere unruliness and arrogance. The major- building. They focus their attention ity went to other that on the courtyard. There they may were thriving in every place. The catch a glimpse of the balcony on phenomenon became so serious that at the railing of which a frog disclosed the end of the eighteenth century to Galvani the mystery of animal there were scarcely ninety lecturers electricity. They now move on to the for less than twice as many students, city limit, where the Temples of who, to their boldness, added sarcasm, Science are located. Sadly, the Archi- thus creating the comic character of gymnasium remains, in its vast halls, Dr. Ballanzon, worthy expression of the solemn guardian of an endless the presumptuous aspect of the empty tradition of treasure, of precious in- teaching of the age. The entrance cunabula, richly miniated, surrounded of the French into the city and the by the manuscripts of our great change of government, produced even Masters.