Giulio Cesare Casseri (1552 – 8 March 1616), also written as Giulio Casser, Giulio Casserio of Piacenza or Latinized as Iulius Casserius Placentinus, Giulio Casserio, was an Italian anatomist. He is best known for the books ''Tabulae anatomicae'' (1627) ''and'' ''De Vocis Auditusque Organis'' (c. 1600). He was the first to describe the
Circle of Willis
The circle of Willis (also called Willis' circle, loop of Willis, cerebral arterial circle, and Willis polygon) is a circulatory anastomosis that supplies blood to the brain and surrounding structures in reptiles, birds and mammals, including huma ...
.
Biography
Born in
Piacenza
Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...
, he moved to
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
as a young man, when he became a servant to the great anatomist
Hieronymus Fabricius
Girolamo Fabrici d'Acquapendente, also known as Girolamo Fabrizio or Hieronymus Fabricius (20 May 1533 – 21 May 1619), was a pioneering anatomist and surgeon known in medical science as "The Father of Embryology."
Life and accomplishments ...
. He studied at the School of Medicine of the University, where his teachers included
Girolamo Mercuriale, who was Chair of Clinical Medicine in Padua from 1580-87. Casseri fell out with Fabricius, initially it seems as Fabricius resented the enthusiasm of the students for Casseri's teaching when Fabricius was ill.
He wrote ''Tabulae anatomicae'', probably the most important anatomical treatise in the seventeenth century, published in Venice, in 1627. The book contained 97 copper-engraved pictures, by Francesco Valesio, inspired by
Odoardo Fialetti, Italian painter and former student at
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...
's school. The pictures in this book were copied in the works of his successor at Padua,
Adriaan van den Spiegel
Adriaan van den Spiegel (or Spieghel), name sometimes written as Adrianus Spigelius (1578 – 7 April 1625), was a Flemish anatomist born in Brussels. For much of his career he practiced medicine in Padua, and is considered one of the great physici ...
(1578–1625). His ''De vocis auditusque organis historia anatomica'' was published in 1600-1 in
Ferrara. In this work, he was the first to illustrate the use of tymbals in the production of sound by
cicadas
The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two ...
. He died in Padua.
The historian of comparative anatomy,
F. J. Cole considered Casserius as one of the oldest exponents of comparative anatomy by examining and illustrating anatomical analogues of man in other animals. He described the arterial circle of the brain 37 years before the work of Thomas Willis after whom is named the Circle of Willis.
Related eponyms
* Casser fontanelle (
mastoid fontanelle
The asterion is a meeting point between three sutures between bones of the skull. It is an important surgical landmark.
Structure
In human anatomy, the asterion is a visible ( craniometric) point on the exposed skull. It is just posterior to ...
)
* Casser perforated muscle (
coracobrachialis muscle
The coracobrachialis muscle is the smallest of the three muscles that attach to the coracoid process of the scapula. (The other two muscles are pectoralis minor and the short head of the biceps brachii.) It is situated at the upper and medial part ...
)
References
Other sources
*
* Bourgery, J. M. & Jacob, N. H.: ''Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery''; Paris, 2005
* Housman, Brian, Bellary, Sharath, Hansra, Simrat, Mortazavi, Martin, Tubbs, R. Shane & Marios Loukas Giulio Cesare Casseri (c. 1552–1616): The servant who became an anatomist. Clinical Anatomy, 2014, Vol.27(5), pp. 675–68
* Weir, Neil, Otolaryngology : an illustrated history. Butterworths, London, 1990.
*
External links
Tabulae anatomicae LXXIIXDe vocis auditusque organis historia anatomica
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casseri, Giulio Cesare
1552 births
1616 deaths
Italian anatomists
People from Piacenza