Cananus, John Baptist

, one of the restorers and improvers of anatomy, was born at Ferrara, in Italy, in 1515, where he acquired so much reputation for his skill in medicine, that he was invited to Rome by pope Julius III. who made him archiator, and his principal physician. On the death of the pope he returned to Ferrara, and pursued his anatomical researches. He first discovered the valves of the veins, which were afterwards more completely described by Vesalius. The work by which he is known, of which only four complete copies are said to be in existence, is “Musculorum humani corporis picturata dissectio,” 4to, printed, Haller thinks, in 1543, no date or place named. The figures, twenty-seven in number, are neatly engraved on copper, and represent the muscles of the upper extremities. In the preface, he promises a continuation of the work, which he probably did not finish. He died in 1579. ²