Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of The Students And Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle AgesWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
History
Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of The Students And Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle Ages
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Medicine, Medieval; Physicians
Beyond his book and certain circumstances connected with it we know very
little about Mondino. What we know, however, enables us to conclude
that, like many another great teacher, he must have had the special
faculty of inspiring his students with an ardent enthusiasm for the work
that they were taking under him. Hence the body-snatching and other
stories. Mondino continued to be held in high estimation by the
Bolognese for centuries after his death. Dr. Pilcher calls attention to
the fact that his sepulchral tablet, which is in the portico of the
Church of San Vitari in Bologna, and a replica of which he was allowed
to have made in order to bring it to America, is the only one of the
sepulchral tablets in the great churches of Florence, San Domenico, San
Martino, the Cathedral and the Cloister of San Giacomo degli Ermitani,
which has not been removed from its original location and placed in the
halls of the Civic Museum. Their removal he considers "a kind of
desecration which does violence to one's sense of sanctity and
propriety." "Fortunately, thus far, the Mondino Tablet has escaped the
spoiler." Very probably Dr. Pilcher's replica of the tablet which he
was required to deposit in the Civic Museum at the time when the copy
was made to be brought to America may save the tablet to be seen in its
original position for many generations.
Mondino's career is of special interest because it foreshadows the life
and accomplishment of many another maker of medicine of the after time.
He did a great new thing in medicine in organizing regular public
dissections, and then in making a manual that would facilitate the work.
He waited patiently for years before completing his book in order that
it might be the fruit of long experience, and so be more helpful to
others. He was so modest as to require urging to secure the publication.
He had the reward of his patience in the popularity of his little work
for centuries after his time. The glimpse that we get of his relations
to his young assistants, Agenius and Alessandra, seems to show us a
teacher of distinct personal magnetism. Undoubtedly the reputation of
his book did much for not only the medical school of the University of
Bologna, but also for the medical schools of other north Italian
universities, and helped to bring to them the crowds of students that
flocked there during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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