m.

For those who know even a little at first hand of Galen, it is only what
might be expected, then, that Mondino, trying to break away from the
anatomy of the pig, which had been before this the basis of all
anatomical teaching in the medical schools (Copho's book, used at
Salerno and Bologna before Mondino's was founded on dissections of the
pig), should have clung somewhat too closely to this old Greek teacher
and Greek master. The incentive furnished by Mondino's book helped to
break the tradition of Galen's unquestioned authority. Besides this, the
group of men around Mondino, his master, Taddeo Alderotti, with his
disciples and assistants, form the initial chapter in the history of the
medical school of Bologna, which gradually assumed the place of Salerno
at this time. There is no better way of getting a definite idea of what
was being done in medicine, and how it was being done, than by knowing
some of the details of the life of this group of medical workers.

Mondino di Liucci, or Luzzi, is usually said to have been born about
1275. His first name is a diminutive for Raimondo. It used to be said of
him that, like many of the great men of history, many cities claimed to
be his birthplace. Five were particularly mentioned--Florence, Milan,
Bologna, Forli, and Friuli. There is, however, another Mondino, a
distinguished physician, who was born and lived at Friuli, and it is
because of confusion with him that the claim for Friuli has been set up.
Florence and Milan are considered out of the question. Mondino was
probably born in or near Bologna. The fact that there should have been
this multiple set of claims shows how much was thought of him. Indeed,
his was the best known name in the medical schools of Europe for nearly
two centuries and a half. He seems to have been a particularly brilliant
student, for tradition records that he had obtained his degree of doctor
of medicine when he was scarcely more than twenty. This seems quite out
of the question for us at the present time, but we have taken to pushing
back the time of graduation, and it is not sure whether this is, beyond
peradventure, so beneficial as is usually thought.

That his early graduation did not hamper his intellectual development,
the fact that, in 1306, when he was about thirty-one years of age, he
was offered the professorial chair in anatomy, which he continued to
occupy with such distinction for the next twenty years, would seem to
prove. Hi