11 Facts About Antonio Benivieni

Antonio di Paolo Benivieni was a Florentine physician who pioneered the use of the autopsy and many medical historians have considered him a founder of pathology.

Antonio Benivieni's father Paolo was a nobleman, notary and a member, alongside his wife Nastagia de' Bruni, of a prominent and wealthy Florentine family from S Giovanni.

Antonio Benivieni was the first of five children alongside Domenico, theology reader at the University of Pisa, and Girolamo, famous poet and scholar.

In Florence Antonio Benivieni soon acquired a great reputation for safety in diagnoses, for the wise use of drugs and above all for his skill as a surgeon.

Antonio Benivieni treated Francesco of 16 years old of the Guicciardini family, and he was a friend and follower of Gerolamo Savonarola as well as his doctor.

Antonio Benivieni had a particular friendship with Lorenzo il Magnifico and he treated his daughter.

Antonio Benivieni owned various Greek, Latin and Arab works, including many medical works such as "I Consilia" of Taddeo and treatises on poisons, baths and various medications.

Antonio Benivieni was considered a skilled diagnostician and praised for his ability to treat difficult cases.

Antonio Benivieni saw intestinal perforations in chronic dysentery ; a megacolon in a child who died of colic; a bristly, hairy-looking heart in an executed man.

Antonio Benivieni was looking for the causes of death and he endeavoured to establish a parallelism between the symptoms reported in life and anatomical lesions.

Antonio Benivieni's work is a valuable testimony of the importance already attributed to the autopsy at the time.