Bartolomeo da Varignana

Bartolomeo da Varignana , also Bartholomeus de Varignana († 1321 in Genoa ), was a city doctor, professor of medicine and court official in Bologna .

Live and act

Bartolomeo da Varignana, the father or brother of Guglielmo Varignana , taught medicine and artes at the University of Bologna around 1292 and became a leading professor of medicine in Bologna after the death of his student, colleague and competitor Taddeo Alderotti . He was a follower of the teachings of Averroes and a representative of the so-called "medical philosophers" as well as the author of commentaries on Hippocrates , Galenus and Avicenna .

Bartolomeo as a coroner

Pope Innocent III decided in 1209 in an unclear death that experienced doctors should be consulted to determine the cause of death. Forensic medical reports were anchored in canon law . In Bologna, the forensic section of human corpses was introduced in the last decades of the 13th century. In Cremona , not far away, there is evidence of a section dating from 1286.

The anatomical examination of the corpse by the Bolognese city doctor Bartolomeo da Varignana in 1302, two other doctors and two skilled surgeons is considered the first expert opinion on a forensic section. They dissected the "black Azzolino" because his body turned olive and then black within hours, which led to the suspicion of poisoning.

Until 1310 he delivered further reports to the city authorities of Bologna.

In 1311 he was banished from Bologna after he had joined King Henry VII as a personal physician on his Italian campaign. Heinrich, crowned emperor in 1312 (Bartolomeo was responsible for the transport of the Iron Crown), died as early as 1313. Bartolomeo defended the confessor against accusations of poisoning.

Since he did not return to Bologna, it was Mondino dei Luzzi to integrate the section into the teaching of the medical faculty of Bologna.

literature

• Bernhard D. Haage, Wolfgang Wegner: Varignana, Bartolomeo da. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1436.

Web links

• Innocent III. and the evolution of anatomy . (English) PMC 1081843 (free full text)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bernhard D. Haage, Wolfgang Wegner: Varignana, Bartolomeo da. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1436.