Art and the teaching of pathological anatomy at the University of Florence since the nineteenth century

Abstract

In 1840, the University of Florence was the first university in Italy to confer a Professorship in Pathological Anatomy. The origin of this teaching post is linked to the history of the Pathology Museum founded in 1824 by the Florentine Accademia Medico-Fisica. The Museum houses anatomical specimens and waxworks depicting pathological conditions in the nineteenth century. Both the need to instruct medical students in pathology without resorting to corpse dissection and the difficulty of the lengthy preservation of anatomical preparations made it necessary to produce life-sized wax duplicates of diseased parts of the body. Through the history of the Pathology Museum of Florence, we describe how pathology developed and, in particular, how pathologists from a literary circle laid the foundations of modern surgical pathology in Italy. Museum visits for the medical students guided by lecturers are still today a component of the course of Pathological Anatomy.