So numerous are the abbreviations in Mondino’s book, so barbarous is his style, that the making of a translation is a difficult task. His reasons for writing are these:—“A work upon any science or art—as saith Galen—is issued for three reasons; First, that one may help his friends. Second, that he may exercise his best mental powers. Third, that he may be saved from the oblivion incident to old age”.
CHAPTER THIRD
Mondino’s Successors
For two hundred years anatomists used Mondino’s book as a text for their lectures and for the same period anatomical writers did little more than comment upon this treatise. The new art of wood engraving was turned to anatomical use and crude illustrations of the various parts of the body were put into circulation. Some of these pictures were in the form of Fliegende Blätter, or flying leaves. A set of anatomical plates of this type was issued by a certain Ricardus Hela, a physician of Paris, as early as the year 1493. They were printed at Nuremberg. Their character may be judged by the accompanying illustration of the osseous system.
Gabriel de Zerbi
One of Mondino’s commentators was Gabriel de Zerbi (1468-1505), of Verona, who taught medicine, logic and philosophy in the Universities of Padua, Bologna and Rome. His book, Anatomia Corporis Humani, appeared at Venice in 1502. Zerbi imitated Mondino in style, abbreviations and language. The work, however, contains some original observations regarding the Fallopian tubes, the puncta lachrymalia and the lachrymal gland. From the fact that Zerbi describes two lachrymal glands in each orbit, it is known that many of his dissections were made upon brutes.
ANATOMICAL PLATE BY RICARDUS HELA, 1493
Zerbi’s reputation, which extended to all parts of Europe, was the cause of his death. The Venetians received from Constantinople the request for a skillful physician who should treat one of the principal Seigniors of Turkey. The Republic turned its eyes to Zerbi who went to Constantinople, apparently cured the Seignior, and, loaded with presents, started on the return voyage for Venice, Unfortunately the patient suddenly died after a debauch. The infuriated Turks overtook the ship on which Zerbi and his son were passengers and carried them back to Constantinople, where both the anatomist and his son were quartered alive.
