Costanzo Varolio, Latinized as Constantius Varolius (1543–1575), was an Italian anatomist and a papal physician to

Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...

. Varolio was born in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

. He was a pupil of the anatomist Giulio Cesare Aranzio, himself a pupil of

Vesalius Andreas Vesalius (Latinized from Andries van Wezel) () was a 16th-century anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, ''De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem'' (''On the fabric of the human body'' '' ...

. He received his doctorate in medicine in 1567. In 1569 the Senate of the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continu ...

created an extraordinary chair in surgery for him with responsibility to teach anatomy as well and where a statue of him is housed at the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio. Later he is believed to have taught at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

although he is not listed on the roll there. Nevertheless, he is known to have had considerable success in Rome both as a physician and as a surgeon and his memorial plaque in that city refers to his great skill in removing stones. He died in Rome. He is best remembered for his work on the

cranial nerves Cranial nerves are the nerves that emerge directly from the brain (including the brainstem), of which there are conventionally considered twelve pairs. Cranial nerves relay information between the brain and parts of the body, primarily to and f ...

. He was the first to examine the brain from its base upwards, in contrast with previous dissections which had been performed from the top downwards. In 1573 he published this new method of dissecting the brain whereby he separated the brain from the skull and began the dissection from the base. Varolio described many of the brain's structures for the first time including the

pons The pons (from Latin , "bridge") is part of the brainstem that in humans and other bipeds lies inferior to the midbrain, superior to the medulla oblongata and anterior to the cerebellum. The pons is also called the pons Varolii ("bridge of Va ...

or ''pons Varolii'' which is a reflex center of respiration and a communication bridge between spinal cord and brain, the '' crura cerebri'' and the

ileocecal valve The ileocecal valve (ileal papilla, ileocaecal valve, Tulp's valve, Tulpius valve, Bauhin's valve, ileocecal eminence, valve of Varolius or colic valve) is a sphincter muscle valve that separates the small intestine and the large intestine. Its ...

Another area of interest to him was the mechanism of erectile function. Although the “Musculi erectores penis” (i.e. Mm. bulbospongiosi and ischicavernosi) had already been described by Galen in the 2nd century A.D., this knowledge was lost by the time of Varolio, who re-discovered them and gave a surprisingly accurate description of the mechanism of erection although his inaccurate attribution of erection to "erector muscles" continued to be believed by most anatomists for three centuries.Richard Herring (2004), ''Talking Cock: A Celebration of Man and His Manhood'', Thunder's Mouth Press Varolius' work is the following:
''De Nervis Opticis nonnullisque aliis praeter communem opinionem in Humano capite observatis. Ad Hieronymum Mercurialem, Patavii apud Paul et Anton. Meiettos fratres'', 1573, 8º, 8 and 32 leaves. It consists of a letter to Girolamo Mercuriale, dated 1 April 1572, his answer, and Varolius' reply to the latter. Appended are three woodcuts pertaining to the brain and drawn by Varolius himself. The engraving is somewhat crude, yet distinct and instructive.Ludwig Chulant, (1852), ''History and Bibliography of Anatomic Illustration.'' (Translated from the German by Mortimer Frank), University of Chicago Press A second work by Varolius, a teleologic physiology of man, was published for the first time after his death: ''Anatomiae sive de resolutione corporis humani ad Caesarem Mediovillanum libri iv, Eiusdem Varolii et Hieron. Mercrialis De nervis Opticis, etc. epistolae, Francofurti, apud Joh. Wechelum et Petr. Fischerum consortes'', 1591, 8º, 8 and 184 pp. This contains one illustration. The former book is republished as a part of this work with unchanged text and the woodcuts recarved in a somewhat different manner.

References and notes

External links

Il Catalogo Unico delle Biblioteche Italiane

Bio Infobank Library
* * Gaetano Luigi Marini, ''Degli archiatri pontifici'', 2 vols. (Roma, 1784)

Eric H. Chudler.

* Richard S. Westfall, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Varolio, Costanzo 1575 deaths 1543 births 16th-century Italian physicians 16th-century Latin-language writers University of Bologna faculty