Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 136

ANTONIO BENIVIENI (1443-1502) Di alcune ammirabili ed occulte cause di morbi e loro guarigioni. Giovanni Ricordi e Stefano Jouhaud 1843 167 pp. 21.2 cm.

Benivieni, a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci and Savonarola, was born in Florence and studied medicine in his native city as well as in Pisa and Siena. He spent his professional life in Florence where he was among the first physicians to study syphilis. However, he is best known for writing the first book on pathological anatomy--De abditis nonnullis ac mirandis morborum et sanationum causis--which was published by his brother in 1507. Here, in 111 observations covering some twenty postmortem examinations, Benivieni has deliberately attempted to determine the precise cause of death. Among his many observations are descriptions of vesical calculus, carcinoma of the stomach, gall stones, and syphilitic periostitis. Neither before Benivieni nor until the work of Bonet in his Sepulchretum (1679) (see No. 528) and later by Morgagni in his De sedibus (1761) (see No. 789) was there any existing work so important in the development of gross pathology. The present work is the first translation of this classic in pathology into a modern language. The translator, Carlo Burci (fl. 1840), was professor of pathological anatomy at Arcispedale di S. M. Nuova--a Florence hospital.

See Related Record(s): 528 789

Cited references: Durling 528 (1st Latin ed., 1507); Garrison-Morton 2270 (1st Latin ed.); Waller 894 (1st Latin ed.)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.