THE FAME OF PADUA
In the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, students from all over Europe seeking the best education, especially in medicine, headed for the University of Padua. For those studying medicine, a degree from Padua was a mark of distinction. The revered names of Vesalius, Fabricius da Aquapendente, Giovanni Battista da Monte, Fracastoro, Galileo, and many others are associated with Padua. Why was the school such a magnet? What created the “lure of Padua,” as the scholar C. D. O’Malley put it?
In 1222 a group of disaffected law students and faculty left the University of Bologna and formed a new university in Padua. This was not too uncommon at that time. Since student fees provided virtually all the income, students and faculty could move whenever circumstances proved burdensome. The new Paduan university added medical teaching in 1250. Almost from inception, the university had a reputation for tolerance of different beliefs and philosophies, largely ignoring clerical charges of heresy. The state of Venice assumed control of the University when it absorbed the town of Padua in 1440 and reinforced the secular attitude.
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| Palazzo Bo, seat of University since 1493. Anatomy theater is located here (Wikipedia) |
Padua lay about twenty miles from Venice, connected by river. Venice at the time was immensely wealthy, prospering from industry and from maritime trade with both the east and west.After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Greek-speaking people fled to Venice, bringing valuable works with them, including works of Galen and Hippocrates in the original Greek. Printing flourished in Venice and in 1469 the first book on pediatrics (and possibly the first printed book on any medical subject), by the Paduan professor Paolo Bagellardi, appeared in 1472. By 1515 there were over 493 printers, publishers, and booksellers in Venice. Vesalius’ atlas and subsequent anatomy texts relied on this nearby source.
The university was closed in the early 1500s due to war conditions, but after 1517 Venice was in peace. It was a semi-
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| Main entrance to University of Padua (from Castiglione, Ann Med Hist) |
republic. About 5% of the population (male noblemen over twenty-five) elected the senators who controlled legislation and most of the agencies. At the top was the elected “Doge,” the state representative. Religious tolerance was assured and the Inquisition kept at bay.
After 1517, the university was managed by four senators, the Rifformatori, who set rules, salaries (some of the highest in Europe), and student fees (kept low due to Venetian subsidies). Local citizens could not hold the senior faculty positions (called “ordinary” chairs), a rule that attracted talented foreign professors. Vesalius, a twenty-three-year-old Belgian, was offered the chair of anatomy and surgery the day after he passed his examinations in 1537.
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| Andreas Vesalius, by Jan de Calcar (Wikipedia) |
Faculty from the Venetian area took the “extraordinary” chairs and faculty that failed to attract many students found themselves out of work. Lifetime tenure was unusual. Students could nominate professors for various chairs and elected a student “rector” that was involved in administrative decisions and sat in on examinations.
For medical students, degrees were granted in medicine (three years of study), medicine and philosophy (eight years), and surgery (five to eight years). By the latter sixteenth century, with the influx of many Protestants, the pope required swearing an oath to the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a degree. The University circumvented the restriction by examining Protestants in the home of a Count Palatine. Count Palatine was a title handed out liberally by the Holy Roman Emperor for favors and conferred the authority to grant university degrees. William Harvey obtained his degree in this manner. In 1616, the University founded a separate college only for Protestants, able to grant degrees.
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| William Harvey (Wikipedia) |
Jewish students were also welcome and received degrees through this and other routes. They could wear the usual black caps of the other students rather than the yellow ones required in other institutions. Vesalius gave Hebrew names to a number of structures (along with Latin and Greek names).
As foreign students increased, the University created “Nations,” separate residential groups containing students from their respective countries of origin. The school year began on October 18 (St. Luke’s day) and ended on August 15. The student was also required to spend a year with an approved practitioner. In 1543 Giambattista Da Monte began clinical rounds at the nearby St. Francis Hospital, considered a first in teaching methods. At examination time, the student had to pass a formal examination and defend a thesis. A student representative was present who could silence an examiner who showed personal animosity.
In 1533 the University established the first European chair in botany (materia medica) to teach the medicinal uses of plants. Species were hard to identify from ancient sources such as
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| Diagram of first botanical garden (from book by Materia Medica Professor Giacomo Cartusi) |
Dioscorides, so in 1543 the University established the first botanical garden in Europe. Plants were imported, some from the recently discovered Americas, planted, and standardized. The garden continues today and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The anatomy department had perhaps the highest reputation, heightened with the professorship of Vesalius, and maintained by professors Realdus Columbus, Gabriel Falloppius, and Fabricius ab Aquapendente, the last being the teacher of William Harvey. In spite of such excellence in anatomy, a permanent anatomy theater was not constructed until 1594, named the Fabricius Theater. Students were especially fond of Fabricius and flocked to his lectures.
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| Padua's anatomical theater (Wikipedia) |
The University of Padua blossomed as the western hemisphere was discovered, Greek learning entered Venice from the east, and printing flourished. Venice provided a secular environment, generous financial support, an openness to foreign students and faculty, and a focus on investigations to advance knowledge. No wonder the University was a tantalizing lure to young medical, and other, scholars throughout Europe. By the seventeenth century a new focus on physiology brought Bologna into the spotlight, but that’s another story.
SOURCES:
Martin, J, “The Vesalian School of Anatomy in Renaissance Padua.” 1982; Books at Iowa 18 (1): 3-17 (available at: https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/bai/article/id/29087/)
Castiglione, A, “The Medical School at Padua and the Renaissance of Medicine.” 1935; Ann Med Hist 7: 214-27.
O’Malley, C D, “The Lure of Padua.” 1970; Medical History 14: 1-9.
Zampieri, F, et al, “Origin and Development of Modern Medicine at the University of Padua and the Role of the “Serenissima” Republic of Venice.” Global Cardiol Sci Practice 2013: 21 (available at: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.5339/gcsp.2013.21)
Tinker, M, “The Importance of Padua/Venice in Sixteenth Century Medicine.” Thesis for Master’s Degree, UCSF, 1980.
Massry, S G, et al, “Jewish Medicine and the University of Padua: Contribution of the Padua Graduate Toviah Cohen to Nephrology.” 1999; Amer J Nephrology 19: 213-221.
Whitteridge, G, William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood 1971, American Elsevier, N.Y.
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