[Andreas Vesalius in Pisa]. / Andrea Vesalio a Pisa.

Andreas Vesalius is the most commanding figure in European medicine, after Galen and before Harvey. His dissections and lectures were in considerable demand. Having just published the De humani corporis fabrica, and before operating as a private physician of Emperor Charles V, the anatomist spent some months conducting demonstrations of anatomy at the universities of Bologna, Pisa and Florence. The present study aim to reconstruct the journey he made to Pisa, where he was invited by Duke Cosimo I De' Medici. The work of Andrea Corsini and O'Malley, the study of Vesalius' Epistola... rationem modumque propinandi radicis Chynae dedocti... , and other documents make possible a more detailed reconstruction of the period Vesalius spent in the Nuovo Studio Pisano, carrying out public human dissections, discussing and refuting most of the Galenic doctrine.

An anencephalus foetus petrified by Gerolamo Segato (1792-1836).

We report the case of an anencephalic foetus petrified by Gerolamo Segato in the course of his experiments on body conservation. The specimen has been studied applying non-invasive methods. Digital radiography and computed tomography (CT) alogside more advanced techniques such as three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction and virtual endoscopy (VE) have been used to investigate anatomic morphology and to perform hypotheses about Segato's method of petrification which is still unknown.

[Angelo Maffucci and the experimental medicine]. / La patologia sperimentale e Angelo Maffucci (1845-1903).

Maffucci had been interested in experimental pathology since 1879. His activity is documented by some experimental works mainly performed at the "Incurabili" Hospital of Neaples, Italy, where he first approached this discipline under the direction of the well-known German pathologist Otto von Schrön. His publications between the years 1882 and 1887, when he was already director to Pisa, were concerned with the infectious embryo pathology, the absorption in the peritoneum and in the articulations, as well as with hypertrophic cirrhosis of the liver, which represented a perfect combination of experimentation and autopsy. His first work on infectious embryo pathology, published in 1887, strongly contributed to the understanding of the different infectious pathologies and asserted unequivocally the need for experimentation in the fields of medical and biological sciences. For this important contribution in the field of pathology and for his brilliant ideas, the National Academy of Lincei awarded the scientist a gold medal in 1903.

The aortic coarctation and the Etruscan man: morphohistologic diagnosis of an ancient cardiovascular disease.

Reports of cardiovascular diseases in ancient time are very rare since the material mainly consists of skeletal remains; therefore, these diagnoses can only be carried out indirectly, through the marks left on bones. Here we show a case of coarctation of the aorta diagnosed on bones. Aortic coarctation is a congenital disorder in which a portion of the aorta is narrowed to various extent. A collateral circulation system is enrolled to allow adequate compensation of the blood flow. Collateral vessels may become enlarged, producing a distinctive notching on the pleural surface of the ribs and on adjacent bones. Excavation of a sixth to fifth century B.C. Etruscan tomb revealed three funerary chambers (celle) housing 14 skeletal remains of adults. The ribs of one of the male skeleton showed "nail stroke" indentations. Detailed macroscopic examination enabled us to identify them as notching and led to the diagnosis of postductal aortic coarctation. Histological analysis of bone tissue from the notching areas excluded inflammatory and pathological erosive events, supporting the macroscopic diagnosis. The present paper is the first description of aortic coarctation in paleopathology.

Short report: cysticercosis in an Egyptian mummy of the late Ptolemaic period.

We describe here an ancient case of cysticercosis that was discovered in an Egyptian mummy of a young woman of about 20 years of age who lived in the late Ptolemaic period (second to first centuries b.c.). On removal of the stomach and its rehydration, a cystic lesion in the stomach wall was observed by naked eye. Microscopical examination of sections of this lesion revealed a cystic structure, with a wall, with numerous projecting eversions, a characteristic feature of the larval stage (cysticercus) of the human tapeworm Taenia solium (or "pig tapeworm"). Immunohistochemical testing with serum from a T. solium-infected human confirmed the identity of the cyst. This finding is the oldest on record of the antiquity of this zoonotic parasite. This observation also confirms that, in Hellenistic Egypt, the farming of swine, along with man an intermediate host of this parasite, was present, and supports other archeological evidence.

The embalming, the scientific method and the paleopathology: the case of Gaetano Arrighi (1836).

Since the most ancient times the problem of the artificial preservation of dead bodies has been an important object of study. In ancient and classic times the reasons leading to this practice were essentially of a religious and esoteric type, but in the modern age, following the development of medical and biological studies, embalming has assumed a more practical trend which is both medicine and scientific. The discovery of blood circulation has marked the scientific method which, in its various forms, has circulated all over Europe bringing fame to eminent anatomists such as Federico Ruysch (1638-1731), William (1718-1783) and John Hunter (1728-1793), Jean Nicolas Gannal (1791-1852), Giuseppe Tranchina, Laskowky and Brosch, who affirmed the embalming by endoarterial injection of conservation fluids making evisceration useless and obsolete. The advent of formalin and the introduction of new surgical and autoptic methods have made this practice gradually fall into disuse. For this reason, the mummy found in Leghorn (Tuscany, Central Italy) is of particular importance since was obtained applying the intravascular injection following the method, described by the Italian medical Giuseppe Tranchina in 1835. The mummified body belongs to Gaetano Arrighi, a prisoner in the Leghorn fortress. He was born in Arezzo in 1789 and died on March 1836 at the age of 47 in the Civil Hospital of Leghorn following pleurisy, as results in an annexed document. The day after his death Dr. Raimondo Barsanti from Pisa and Superintendent at the Leghorn hospital made up the Tranchina's method, which consisted in the injection of an arsencial -mercury solution inside of the blood vessels, giving rigidity and dark red color to the dead body. The excellent outcome of the intervention has made it possible, more than 160 years later, to study not only the method by which Arrighi's body was embalmed but also to perform a careful paleopathological imaging study by traditional X-rays and by Computer Axial Tomography (CAT). The high percentage of mercury present in the conservation fluid conferred radiopacity, making it possible to evidence the diffusion of the liquid into the entire artery tree and in particular into the aorta as well as in all the right and left artery systems. The radiopacity showed an unusual thoracic picture suggesting a pathological situation. The CAT study enriched and ameliorated the results obtained by X-rays making it possible to reconstruct the embalming procedure and to confirm the diagnosis of wet pleurisy probably cause by a tubercular infection.

[Angelo Maria Maffucci (1845-1903) and the beginning of pathological anatomy in Pisa]. / Angelo Maria Maffucci (1845-1903) e gli inizi dell' anatomia patologica a Pisa.

In 1884, at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Pisa, the new chair of pathology was inaugurated and Angelo Maria Maffucci was appointed first director. Angelo Maffucci was born in 1845 in Calitri, near Avellino, from a farming family. After graduating in medicine at Naples, in 1872, he started his scientific work at the institute of pathology, under Otto von Schrön (1837-1917). He was professor of general pathology in Messina then Professor of pathology at the university of Catania. In 1884 assumed the role of chairman of pathology at the university of Pisa, where he died in 1903. His scientific contribution is recorded in the massive collection of his personal notes, sketchbooks and watercolours. In 1881 he described, for the first time, the disease characterized by an enchondroma with multiple angiomas, known as Maffucci's Syndrome. The most important scientific contribution was in the field of tuberculosis. Maffucci asserted that avian tuberculosis had a different aetiology from the bovine and human forms. This revolutionary theory caused a strong scientific conflict with Robert Kock. In the last years of his life his pioneering research provided the basis for the following modern investigations to produce vaccines from living bacilli. As a person he was described as brilliant and modest, shy and rigorous.

[Ergonomic pathology of Pandolfo III Malatesta]. / "Le donne, I cavalieri, l'arme, gli amori, le cortesie, l'audaci imprese io canto...": Ergonomia e paleopatologia del principe Pandolfo III Malatesta.

Pandolfo III Malatesta, Prince of Fano, was born in 1370 from Galeotto Malatesta and Gentile Varano. He was a leading figure of the Italian Renaissance and Captain General of the troops of the Republic of Venice in the war against the Visconti of Milan and the Hungarians. The Prince represents a typical example of a XVth century condottiere. He was a strong, active man, a valiant soldier and horseman at times impulsive and, as somebody noticed, a lover of "charming women". As a matter of fact during his life he married three noble women, but had only illegitimate descendants. Pandolfo died on October 3, 1427, at the age of 57, soon after his third marriage to a woman who was 40 years younger. His natural mummy, resumed in 1995, was submitted to conventional X-ray, to autopsy and to videographic examination of the mouth making possible the diagnosis of prostatic hyperplasia and a number of skeletal-muscle acquired lesions. The present paper analyses and correlates both the life style of Pandolfo and the muscles-skeleton lesions. The results showed a strict correlation allowing the elaboration of a typical ergonomic model: as a matter of fact the Prince was a soldier, constantly dressing a heavy suit of armour, using cold steel such as the sword and riding as horseman, fighting during the battles or jousting during the chivalrous tournaments.

[Ancient DNA studies: from paleopathology to population genetics]. / Medicina molecolare e storia della medicina: dalla paleopatologia alla genetica delle popolazioni.

We discuss the relevance of ancient DNA studies for novel approaches to a variety of fields of scientific inquiry, including population and evolutionary genetics, prehistoric archaeology, paleopathology and history of human diseases. To exemplify the potential of ancient DNA research, we provide accounts of studies currently conducted at our laboratories in four different areas: 1) origins of the dog and phylogeny of prehistoric Italian canids; 2) paleogenetics of ancient Roma; 3) antiquity for variant alleles implicated in disease predisposition; 4) molecular investigation of pathologic lesions in Italian mummies of Renaissance age. The implications of the results obtained are briefly outlined.