GIOVANNI BATTISTA MORGAGNI: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS AND WORKS - ARTE - 2025

Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771) was an Italian physician and anatomist considered by many to be the father of modern pathological anatomy, as well as medicine based on clinical diagnostics.

With a rationalist vision, he was the first physician to demonstrate the need to base diagnosis, prognosis and treatment on the anatomical conditions of the patient and thus discover the correlation of the underlying lesions and the disease.

De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis (1761) is his most important work, being the compilation of more than 700 medical records and the protocols used in them.

He served as professor of anatomy at the University of Padua (Italy), one of the largest institutions of knowledge in medicine of the time.

Biography

Giovanni Battista Morgagni, or simply Giambattista Morgagni, was born in Forlì, a city near Bologna, on February 25, 1682. The son of Fabrizio Morgagni and Maria Tornielli, he was born into an upper-middle-class family that could live in a wealthy way.

His father passed away when he was barely seven years old and his two older brothers also lost their lives at an early age. This did not mean a setback in Morgagni's education, since his mother knew how to manage the family situation perfectly.

Studies

He studied classical languages ​​and science at an early age, and was soon recognized as an exceptional student with a facility for learning. One of his skills was writing, as demonstrated in a poem dedicated to a man who saved him from drowning when he was thirteen.

His first academic years were developed in his hometown, until in 1698 he moved to Bologna to enter the university with only sixteen years. Soon he was recognized and many professors wanted him by their side as an assistant or managing teaching projects.

Some of these enlightened teachers were Ippolito Francesco Albertini (1662-1738), Eustachio Manfredi (1674-1739) or Antonio Maria Vasalva (1666 -1723), the latter of great importance in his education and for whom Morgagni had a special admiration.

Doctorate

In 1701, just turned 19 years old, he obtained his Doctorate in Philosophy and Medicine. This allowed him to work as a professor at certain conferences or sporadically supplying professors like Valsalva or Albertini, who had blind faith in their former student.

Meanwhile, he continued to train as an anatomist, practicing in the different hospitals of Bologna and working as a prosectro in Valsalva, whom he helped in his famous treatise On Human Aura (1704). That year he was also appointed director of the Accademia degli Inquieti, one of the most prestigious in Italy.

Morgagni was from the empirical school, so in 1706 he published Adversaria anatomica, a work that was expanded to reach six volumes and where he compiles the autopsies carried out during those years.

General practitioner in Forlì

After a brief stay in Venice, where he expanded his knowledge of chemistry, pharmacy or mathematics, he returned to Forlì to practice as a general practitioner in his hometown.

That was too small for him, so he did not hesitate to resign his post in 1711 due to being claimed from the University of Padua. There he was appointed as Professor of Ordinary Theory. A year later, he published Nova institutionum medicarum idea, in which he compiled plans for the renewal of academic training for medicine.

Although he was a recognized man, his methodology did not become very established among the Padua academics, who were of more conservative ideas.

He led a relatively quiet professional life while teaching, conducting research, or performing autopsies.

De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis

It was in 1761, near the age of 80, when he published his most important work: De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis. Book that contained more than 700 clinical references and the protocol carried with each one of them. A work that took years of preparation and that contained the basis of modern pathological anatomy.

Morgagni married in 1712 with Paola Vergeri, a woman with whom he had fifteen children. Only one of them followed in his father's professional footsteps, but unfortunately he died at a young age.

Contributions and legacies

Giovanni Battista Morgagni is, clearly, one of the founders of modern medicine, being the greatest precursor of Pathological Anatomy as we know it today.

His contribution was the final culmination of the medical revolution that began in the Renaissance with references such as Andrés Vesalio (1514 - 1564) or William Harvey (1578 - 1657), both scholars of human anatomy.

Giambattista Morgagni's extensive and meticulous studies provided medicine with new information on patient treatment. He provided valuable information on parts of the human body such as the trachea, larynx, male urethra and female genitalia or the glottic cavity.

At the same time, he established new techniques in post-mortem examinations in which the cause and nature of the subject's disease became relevant, as well as the way to formulate diagnoses and possible preventive treatments.

Until the last days of his life he was, in his own words, “surrounded by corpses and books”, the latter a hobby that he deeply cultivated. An example of this is the personal library with more than 5000 books that his daughter sold to the University of Padua, after the great Italian doctor died.

Plays

Giambattista Morgagni's writings are countless due to his knowledge of various arts and sciences, such as history, geography, archeology, philology, as well as medicine. He was an enlightened man with access to many knowledge bases and who liked to recycle.

Outstanding works

Adversaria Anatomica Prima (1706), Adversaria anatomica altera et tertia (1717) and Adversaria anatomica quarta, quinta et sexta (1719).

These were volumes containing annotations on pathological anatomy including corrections by previous anatomists.

De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis (1761)

Work where about 700 autopsy dissections are collected and where the correlation with the subject's pathology and death is established. In other words, it was demonstrated how through a specific organic lesion it was possible to explain certain clinical symptoms. This destroyed the theory on humoral pathology, being a historical work for modern medicine.

Other

- From human aure (1704)

- Epistolae anatomicae duae novas observationes et animadveriones complectentes (1728).

- Epistolae anatomicae duodeviginti ad scripta pertinent celeberrimi viri Antonii Mariae Valsalvae (1740).

- Opuscula miscellanea (1763).

- Opera omnia in quinque tomos divisa (1764).

References

1. Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Giovanni Battista Morgagni italian anatomist and pathologist. Extracted from britannica.com.
2. Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682 - 1771). Extracted from sciencemuseum.org.uk.
3. Founders of Modern Medicine. Medical Library and Historical Journal. 1903 Oct; 1 (4): 270–277. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
4. Giménez More, JA; Del Valle Sánchez, Elena; Escobar Chico; Ángel, Zampieri, Fabio; Scocco, Serena; Thiene, Gaetano (2015). The perfect doctor according to Giambattista Morgagni. Extracted from seap.es.