''Medicus Educandus'': Considerations on the Nova Institutionum Medicarum Idea (1712) by G.B. Morgagni

Abstract

On March 17, 1712, Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771) inaugurated the course of medical theory entrusted to him with his inaugural lecture "Nova institutionum medicarum idea", given to the press in the same year in Padua. In it, the author presented the educational project for the "medicus perfectissimus". In his proposal, the curriculum had to include studies on religious and human law, logic and rhetoric, mathematics, philosophy, chemistry, botany, pharmacy and therapy, in addition to an in-depth study of morphology also in its pathological aspects. Morgagni's educational method proposed adherence to empirical data, encouragement to search for the truth through observations and experiments. Against the Paduan university cultural setting, which saw its Renaissance lustre and prestige diminished, Morgagni's inaugural lecture seems to be a proposal that embodies the expectations also felt by other intellectuals of the period, such as Scipione Maffei in his university study reform project.