Alessandro Benedetti (1450?–1512) was born in

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

, traveled and worked extensively in Greece and

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, and worked as

surgeon general Surgeon general (: surgeons general) is a title used in several Commonwealth countries and most NATO nations to refer either to a senior military medical officer or to a senior uniformed physician commissioned by the government and entrusted with p ...

of the

Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetians might refer to: * Masters of Venetian painting in 15th-16th centuries * ...

army. His ''Anatomice, or The History of the Human Body'' is a descriptive anatomy in the style of Mundinus. It concludes with a final chapter on the praise of

dissection Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause of ...

. He expresses the need for a

clinical examination In a physical examination, medical examination, clinical examination, or medical checkup, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a medical condition A disease is a particular abnormal co ...

rather than uncritical trust in the authorities "since in it we see the truth and contemplate its revelations as the works of nature lie under our eyes… but those who trust only the monuments of literature… are often deceived and entrust opinion rather than truth to their minds." He later describes a

postmortem examination An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death; ...

of a woman who had died of

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

and the disease's effects on her

bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...

s. Benedetti critiqued those

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

s who trusted in the authorities more than their own experience: "

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

has had so much authority for so many centuries that even those things which hysicianshave not seen they will affirm to exist, even without experiment." Benedetti valued personal observation over blind trust in the authorities and even, shockingly for the time, corrected Aristotle. "Aristotle believes that the nerves first arise from the heart… but almost all of them (as is more evidently established) are perceived to originate in large part from the brain…." Medieval scholars preferred to trust the authorities over their own observations, while this new generation of anatomists increasingly valued experience over theory. Living through the

Italian Wars The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 1494 and 1559, mostly in the Italian Peninsula, but later expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and Mediterranean Sea. The primary belligerents were the House of Valois, Valois kings o ...

, he wrote a commentary on the Battle of Farnovo of 1495 as he was tending to the wounds of the injured, experiencing first hand the horrors of the battle, he mentioned "on every side the sky flashed repeatedly with fire and thundered with artillery ... and iron, bronze and lead hissed pass and the air was filled with wails and cries".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benedetti, Alessandro 1512 deaths Military personnel from Parma Italian anatomists Physicians from the Republic of Venice 15th-century Italian physicians 16th-century Italian physicians History of anatomy Year of birth uncertain 16th-century Italian writers 16th-century Italian male writers Physicians from Parma