The body factory

Medicine, Anatomy, and Surgery

The Franciscans, aware that only God can perform miraculous healings, were very interested in medicine and related disciplines aimed at alleviating human suffering. The friars who cared for the sick consulted medical, anatomical, and surgical treatises, thus integrating the direct experience gained in their infirmaries and apothecaries.

The manuscripts

One of the oldest texts on display is the Antidotarium Nicolai: among the most famous medieval recipe books, it provides a list of medications and recipes in alphabetical order. References to care and isolated recipes also appear in manuscripts that host texts of a completely different nature, such as an interesting codex that juxtaposes various metaphysical and natural philosophy questions with a singular Recipe for making celestial water, useful for treating wounds and sores.

Many authors of the medieval and modern ages, referring to medical, alchemical, astrological, philosophical, and even theological sources, sought to discover the factors that could influence the duration of life and the means to prolong it. In this regard, we see a singular work – much later than the previous ones – titled On the Conservation of Man, by the unknown Assisi physician Francesco Corneo, inspired by treatises on longevity.

The first printed texts

In studying and observing various pathologies, the friars constantly updated themselves thanks to new printed treatises. Standing out in its robustness, almost flaunting an uncommon importance, is the significant commentary by Giacomo da Forlì on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, a text clearly linked to university teaching, in which the aphorisms of the famous Greek physician and the master’s related comments appear in different typographic characters.

Another significant printed testimony is the imposing incunabulum of the Consilia by Bartolomeo Montagnana, a physician and professor at the University of Padua, one of the most famous and prolific writers of his time. The consilium is a text connected to “what to do,” to the dimension of action, and is written by a physician, mostly of university training, based on the analysis of a specific clinical case.

Finally, we have the Fasciculus medicinae by Giovanni da Ketham, a famous collection of medical texts first printed in Venice in 1491. The book, widely used as a manual and rich in splendid illustrations, had great diffusion and was one of the pillars for teaching the discipline until the mid-16th century.

Modern anatomy and surgery

The library includes texts that have marked the history of anatomy and surgery. This is the case of De humani corporis Fabrica by Vesalius, published in 1543, containing over three hundred plates. The clear intent that animates the treatise is to study bodies as they actually appeared through direct vision and study.

Much later, but still tributary to the Vesalian revolution, is the Tractatus de organo auditus by the French anatomist Joseph-Guichard Duverney. Published in 1683, it is one of the first works on otology – the study of the ear – of extraordinary interest for the treatment and description of the anatomy of the auditory apparatus.

In the field of surgery, the Opera chirurgica by the great French surgeon Ambroise Paré stands out, considered the greatest European surgeon of his time. Unlike Vesalius, he did not favor experience on cadavers but operated directly on living bodies. He had extraordinary insights, both regarding the treatment of wounds inflicted by firearms and in the practice of amputations, for which he intuited the opportunity to tie blood vessels, as was done for hemorrhagic wounds, instead of using cautery.