The MS. of Manfredi’s _Anatomy_ is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford
(Canon. Ital. 237, Western 20287). It is a fairly preserved small
quarto parchment, originally of forty-nine folios, of which the third
and fourth are missing. The writing is in the fine Italian hand that
the printed type of the period was accustomed to imitate. There are no
figures or illuminations, but the titles are rubricated in burnished
gold or in colours.
There is no reference to this work in any account of Manfredi, and the
volume itself appears to be quite unknown. Neither the man nor his work
is mentioned in Medici’s detailed history of the anatomical school at
Bologna[180] nor in Martinotti’s recent study on the same topic,[181]
nor is any MS. of Manfredi included in Mazzatinti’s monumental
catalogue of the MSS. in the Italian libraries.[182]
Manfredi’s MS. is written in the involved Italian of the day, with
sentences of inordinate length. These general characters of style are
encountered also in his published works. The dedication is in Latin, of
the same unpleasing quality, and is couched in the usual subservient
manner. It is addressed to Giovanni Bentivoglio, and in it Manfredi
relates that
‘Your illustrious lordship Johannes Bentivolus in this present
year 1490 with your usual humanity condescended on one occasion to
watch the dissection of a corpse.... It was then that you saw the
wonderful works of Nature in the anatomy ... and you parentally
urged me, Hieronymo Manfredi, to inscribe to your most noble name
this work on anatomy.... I therefore extracted this work as best I
might from various works of antiquity and abbreviated it. I have
not followed their order, but I have so composed it that the work
should be pleasing to your lordship.
‘Accept then, O great and powerful lord, this work on the anatomy
of the human body inscribed to your noble name! Accept it with your
customary benevolence and humanity and in a kindly and gracious
spirit, for it will be pleasing to you and will delight you
greatly, for it is a worthy work!’
The Giovanni Bentivoglio (Plate XXXVII), with adulation of whom
Manfredi was thus accustomed to plaster his works, was the second of
the name and was the son of Annibale Bentivoglio. In the year 1462
he became head of the republic of Bologna, and played there much the
same rôle as did Lorenzo de’ Medici at Florence. He adorned Bologna
with numerous buildings,[183] and acted as patron of the arts and the
sciences. The Palazzo dei Bentivogli still stands as a memorial to him
and his family. A stern and high-handed tyrant, he held his position
until 1506, when he was expelled and the city reverted to the papacy.
He died two years later.
It is remarkable to find a man of Bentivoglio’s eminence and position
taking an interest in the practical study of anatomy. Other Italian
rulers, Lorenzo de’ Medici among them, encouraged and legalized the
practice of dissection, but probably Bentivoglio is the only one
recorded as having patronized an ‘anatomy’ in person. The interest
taken in the subject by the heads of states must have been of great
value to the artists whose patrons they were.
The MS. is a unique copy, and was doubtless written for presentation to
Bentivoglio. That it was never printed is perhaps due to the fact that
Manfredi died within a comparatively short time of its composition. It
represents the most satisfactory post-mediaeval account of the human
frame until the appearance of the work of Berengario da Carpi in 1521.
It is more complete than the work of William of Saliceto or of Mondino
or the anatomy erroneously attributed to Richardus Anglicus; it is more
natural than the book of Gabriele de Gerbi, and is far superior to the
crude contemporary sketches of Hundt, Peyligk, and Achillini, while
it wastes less space than Guy de Chauliac on teleology, though it has
none of the charm of the work of that great surgeon. In one respect at
least, viz. the spirit in which it is written, Manfredi’s _Anatomy_
is original and probably unique for its age. There is no reason to
doubt the assurance of the dedication that it was composed for the
edification of the tyrant of Bologna, and for the simple purpose of
setting forth the wonderful structure of man’s body without thought of
any medical application.
The sources of the MS. are obvious. It is in the main a rearranged
and on the whole improved Mondino, but amplified by reference to
translations from Galen, Rhazes, Haly Abbas, and Avicenna. Guy
de Chauliac has perhaps also been used. The work gives a general
impression of being the product of a practical dissector, and it
provides us with a good example of early Renaissance anatomy as taught
in the Italian schools before the reforms of Vesalius. It is perhaps
the first complete treatise on its subject written originally in the
vernacular.[184] It exhibits, however, no other original features nor
any considerable departures from its sources, and it may be taken to
represent, with but little modification, the tradition of Mondino as
developed at his own University of Bologna at the end of the fifteenth
century.
Manfredi’s work, however, if not original is at least eclectic, and
the variety of its sources indicates a dawning consciousness of the
unwisdom of trusting to the infallibility of any one writer. The work
is thus in a sense intermediate between the early printed versions
of Mondino, such as that of 1478, and the edition published in 1528
by Berengario da Carpi with its frank commentary of the master.
All represent stages towards the freedom of the later Renaissance
investigators.
We reproduce the text in full, and the passages on the head, on the
eye, and on the heart, are rendered into English. All are similar to
the accounts of Mondino. We are able to illustrate them by figures
from contemporary works, and thus to give an idea of the limits of the
anatomical knowledge of the day.