加布里瓦·法罗皮奥

Gabrielle Falloppia (Gabriele Falloppio) (1522/23 – 9 October 1562) was an Italian Catholic priest and anatomist often known by his Latin name Fallopius. He was one of the most important anatomists and physicians of the sixteenth century, giving his name to the fallopian tube.

Life

Falloppio grew up in Modena. His father died early but thanks to the support of affluent relatives he enjoyed a thorough humanist education in Modena, learning Latin and Greek and moving in the local circle of humanist scholars. He was for some years in the service of the Church, among others as a kind of warden at Modena's cathedral, but soon turned to medicine. In 1544, he performed a public anatomy in Modena. In 1545, at the latest, he began to study medicine at the University of Ferrara, at that time one of the best medical schools in Europe. It was there also that he much later, in 1552, when he was already professor in Padua, received his medical doctorate under the guidance of Antonio Musa Brasavola. He taught on medicinal plants in Ferrara but was not professor of anatomy there, as has sometimes been claimed. He also was never a personal student of Andreas Vesalius as is often falsely maintained (he explicitly called himself a student of Vesalius in the sense only that he had read his works). In 1548, he took the chair of anatomy at the University of Pisa. In 1551, he was invited to occupy the chair of anatomy and surgery at the University of Padua and also lectured on medicinal plants or botany.……

Contributions

Falloppio published only one major work during his lifetime, the Observationes anatomicæ, which first came out in 1561. Here he presented his numerous new anatomical findings, correcting and expanding on the works of Galen and Vesalius. Some of his findings referred to the head and the brain. He added much to what was known before about the internal ear and described in detail the tympanum and its relations to the osseous ring in which it is situated. He also described minutely the circular and oval windows (fenestræ) and their communication with the vestibule and cochlea. He was the first to point out the connection between the mastoid cells and the middle ear. His description of the lacrimal ducts in the eye was a marked advance on those of his predecessors and he also gave a detailed account of the ethmoid bone and its cells in the nose. The aquaeductus Fallopii (facial canal), the canal through which the facial nerve passes after leaving the auditory nerve, is also named after him. He also described the Fallopian hiatus, an opening in the anterosuperior part of the petrosal bone.

His contributions to the anatomy of the bones and muscles were very valuable as well. He discovered, among others, the muscle that lifts the upper eyelid.……

Legacy

Various anatomical structures were described by Falloppio, including Fallopian tube, Fallopian canal, and Fallopian ligament.

A genus of about 12 species of flowering plants bears his name (Fallopia).

Works

Omnia, quæ adhuc extant opera (1584) (mostly a collection of student notes on Falloppio's lectures)

Falloppio, Gabriele. 1562. Observationes anatomicae. Venetiis: Apud Marcum Antonium Vlmum. (first published in 1561)

Kunstbuch Des hocherfarnen und weytberhümpten Herrn Gabrielis Fallopij, der Artzney Doctorn von mancherley nutzlichen Künsten . Sampt einem andern büchlin / durch Christophorum Landrinum außgangen. Manger, Augspurg 1578 Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf (spurious, wrongly attributed to Falloppio)

Gabrielis Fallopii Wunderlicher menschlichem Leben gewisser und sehr nutzlicher Secreten drey Bücher : vom Authore selbst in Italienischer Sprach publicirt, jetzund aber Teutscher Nation zu gutem in unser Muttersprach ubersetzet. Iennis / N. Hoffmann, Franckfurt am Mayn 1616 Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf (spurious, wrongly attributed to Falloppio)