Paul IV (1555-59).--One of the physicians to Pope Paul IV, of whom it is noted that he was also an intimate friend whom the Pontiff loved very dearly, was Jerome Cessa, doctor of medicine and philosophy, who wrote a work on medicine and a treatise on religion, and who is said to have refused the dignity of cardinal which was offered him because he felt that others worthier might be chosen.
One of the distinguished physicians of this time was Professor Altamare of Naples, of whom De Renzi in his Storia della Medicina in Italia tells that when he was compelled to fly from his native country by political disturbance, he was given a refuge by Pope Paul IV, under whose "wise and benevolent protection" he was able to continue his medical work for a time and through whose patronage he was restored to his professorship at Naples. As a mark of gratitude Altamare dedicated to Pope Paul IV his book De Medendis Humani Corporis Malts, Ars Medica.
Pius IV (1559-65).--Alidosius, in his work on "The Foreign Doctors Who Have Been Professors of Theology, Philosophy, Medicine and The Liberal Arts in Bologna" (Li Dottori Forestieri, che in Bologna hanno Letto Teologia, Filosofia, Medicina ed Arti Liberali), mentions John Andrew Bianchi, a doctor of medicine and the liberal arts, famous for his learning, who taught in the University of Bologna from 1525 to 1561 with great success and then was summoned to Rome to be the physician to Pope Pius IV to the satisfaction of everyone, for it was felt that he had achieved the highest place in his profession of medicine.
Simon Pasqua, a physician to Pope Pius IV, was the author of a book On The Gout and of a description of his Embassy to Great Britain from Genoa in the time of Queen Mary and Philip, but this, unfortunately, was only in manuscript and seems to have been lost.
Pompeius Barba, or dalla Barba, was another of the physicians of Pope Pius IV. He wrote a volume on "The Immortality of the Soul according to the Peripatetic Philosophers" which was published at Florence in 1553. Two years later he wrote a commentary on some of the writings of Pico della Mirandola and nearly twenty-five years later there appeared at Venice a dialogue of his "On Arms and Letters." He left in manuscript a book On Baths as well as some poems.
Still another of the physicians of Pope Pius IV was Franciscus Gymnasius, described by a contemporary (Caesar Mezamici in his Notizie Istoriche) as "so distinguished in the profession of [{454}] medicine that while he was professor in Bologna many of the princes of Italy called him in consultation when they were seriously ill and constantly with a happy issue." Pius IV called him to Rome, honored him with one of the principal chairs in the Papal University of the Sapienza, providing a special stipend for him, and made him his personal physician. Gymnasius added to his fame and obtained universal esteem in the Curia. His tomb is in the Church of the Minerva at Rome.
A very interesting character at Rome during the later Renaissance was Jerome Cardan, who though not a papal physician by formal appointment, after wandering all over the world in various capacities, lived his last years at Rome, enjoying a pension from the Pope. He is a type of the many-sided, many-minded man of the Renaissance. In 1524 he received his degree of doctor in medicine at Padua, practised for ten years and then became professor of mathematics in Milan, and a few years later taught medicine at Pavia, refused the corresponding professorship at Copenhagen, spent nearly a year with Archbishop Hamilton of St. Andrews, the primate of Scotland, returned to Italy to practise once more, refusing many offers of professorships in foreign universities, taught for some years at Pavia and then at Bologna and spent the last five years of this varied, and at the end rather stormy career, at Rome living on the Papal bounty. He is one of the great geniuses of the time whose "vanity, boastfulness, childish credulity, superstitiousness was bound up with a genius that opened up many new paths in science" (Gurlt). His work meant more for philosophy and, above all, for mathematics than for medicine, but he has an important place in the history of science.
Another genius who spent some years in Rome about the same time, and evidently found it eminently favorable for his work, was Jerome Mercurialis, who was sent by his native city to Rome on a mission to Pope Pius IV, when about 32, and secured opportunities for study in Rome so much to his desires that he spent seven years in medical and philological studies there. After this he was invited to be Trincavella's successor at Padua and from here was summoned by the Emperor Maximilian II on a consultation to Vienna and richly rewarded for his services. After seven years of medical professorship at Padua he was for some twelve years in a similar capacity at Bologna, which was then a Papal University, and then accepted the call of the Grand Duke Cosimo I to Pisa. The Medici were laboring at this time to make Pisa an important rival in education of Padua and Bologna and [{455}] were offering alluring salaries and special inducements to the most distinguished teachers in every department. Mercurialis' books on skin diseases, on women's diseases, on the diseases of children and on gymnastics, went through many editions and now sell for good prices in auction rooms, for he is considered one of the classics of medicine.
Pius V (1564-72).--One of the physicians and intimate friends of Pope St. Pius V was Placidus Fuscus, who wrote a volume "On the Use and Abuse of Astrology in Medicine." Fuscus, according to the inscription on his tomb, was "distinguished for his social service, his work at the hospital of the Santo Spirito and among the poor of Rome and especially those in prison."
Gregory XIII (1572-85).--As might be expected, the physician of Pope Gregory XIII, the Pope to whom we owe the correction of the calendar, was a distinguished medical scientist who had been earlier an intimate friend as well as physician to St. Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuits. His name was Alessandro Trajano Petronio of Castiglione, and he is often mentioned in the medical literature of the time and wrote a book, De Victu Romanorum et de Sanitate Tuenda, "On The Diet of the Romans and the Preservation of Health," which he dedicated to Pope Gregory XIII. He also wrote a work on "The Water of the Tiber" and a series of dialogues on medicine as well as "Medical Aphorisms" (Venice, 1535.)