Abstract
Girolamo Fabrizi, also known as Fabricius ab Aquapendente, was a renowned teacher of Medicine at Padua University where he held the Chair of Surgery and Anatomy for almost 50 years. 1 He was connected directly to Vesalius' school through his master and predecessor in the Chair of Anatomy, Gabriele Falloppia (1523–62), who in turn had been successor to Andreas Vesalius (1514–64). Fabrizi treated many famous people, among them Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) but his name in Padua is remembered mainly in connection to the extant anatomical theatre, well known and remarkable in its features. Fabrizi wanted a permanent place for public anatomical dissections and at last succeeded in persuading the Medical Faculty to have it built. The theatre was inaugurated in 1594, with a seating capacity of almost 300 people: as the first permanent structure of its kind, it became a model for many anatomical theatres built in the following century. 2
In 1882 the Municipality of Acquapendente (Province of Viterbo) charged the Italian sculptor Tito Sarrocchi (1824–1900) with the making of a monument 3 to the great anatomist, certainly the most famous son of this small town. The marble statue to the memory of Girolamo Fabrizi was unveiled on 29 August, 1888 and it still stands in the centre of the main square (Figure 1). It represents the old anatomist with two scalpels (nowadays lacking the original bronze blades) in his left hand and two of his books on a low pillar under the right hand: the books are the De formato foetu (1600) and the De venarum ostiolis (1603). The latter was a major source of inspiration for Harvey's studies on the circulation of the blood.
Girolamo Fabrizi's monument in the central square of Acquapendente, Italy
The town of Acquapendente maintains other memories of the great anatomist including the house where he was born (restored recently), a beautiful 1856 portrait of the anatomist by Fabrizio Pasqualoni displayed inside the Mayor's office at the Town Hall and a memorial from Fabrizi's family chapel in the Romanic Church of St Francis.