An organized Medical Faculty existed at Bologna at least as early
as 1156,[152] though the first record of dissection there is of
considerably later date. In February 1302 a certain Azzolino died under
suspicious circumstances. Poison was suspected, an inquest was held
and a post-mortem examination ordered. The investigation was conducted
by two physicians and three surgeons, who unanimously agreed ‘that
the said Azzolino assuredly met his death by no poison, but on the
contrary, we assert that the quantity of blood collected in the great
vein known as the _vena chilis_ [vena cava][153] and in the veins of
the liver adjacent thereunto, has prevented the due movement of the
_spiritus_ throughout the body, and has thus produced the diminution
or rather extinction of the innate heat and thereby induced a rapid
post-mortem discoloration. Of this condition we have assured ourselves
_by the evidence of our own senses and by the anatomization of the
parts_.’[154]
The first anatomical document emanating from the University of Bologna
is, however, of still earlier date, and is the work of William of
Saliceto (1210?–80). This writer was educated at Bologna, and it is
claimed that he was the first to dissect the human body there.[155] His
_Cyrurgia_, which was completed in 1275 (_editio princeps_, Piacenza,
1476), is divided into five books, of which the fourth and shortest
is devoted to anatomy. Its descriptions are brief and concise. They
are often clearly the result of actual observation, and they show
hardly any trace of the absurd and irritating teleology that the
influence of the Arabians and of Galen made customary in early
anatomical literature. The anatomy of Saliceto appears to us very
sensible and so far as it goes practical. It betrays the method rather
of the Salernitan than of the Arabian anatomical writings, and is on
the whole the best European work of the kind before the Renaissance.
It was, however, soon replaced by the text-book of Mondino di Luzzi
(1285–1327),[156] which, though inferior to that of Saliceto, held the
field until the subject was revolutionized by Vesalius.
[Illustration: Plate XXXIII. The FIVE-FIGURE SERIES BODLEIAN MS.
ASHMOLE 399, about 1292 Fos. 18 r–22 r