Mundinus

, or Mondino, a physician deservedly celebrated in the dark ages, was born at Milan, according to Freind and Douglas, and flourished early in the fourteenth century. He held the professorship of medicine at Bologna in 1316, and enjoyed an extensive reputation throughout Italy, principally for his anatomical pursuits, in which, however, Eloy thinks he shewed more zeal than success, although he was the first among the moderns who dissected human bodies. He was the author of a work, entitled “Anatomia omnium humani Corporis interiorum Membrorum,” first printed at Pavia in 1478, in fol. reprinted at least fourteen times, the last in 1638, 12mo, with various commentaries. It is a methodical treatise, very copious upon the subject of the viscera, in the description of which he introduced many original observations, but passes lightly over the subject of the nerves and blood-vessels. With all its errors, which are very copious, it conferred a real benefit on the infant science, and the statutes of Padua, and some other medical schools of Italy, prohibited the use of every other work, as a text-book for the students of anatomy. Mundinus died at Bologna, Aug. 30, 1318, and was buried in the church of St. Vital. ²