Bernardino Genga of Mondolfo, Italy, a pioneer of surgical anatomy, taught and practiced in seventeenth-century papal Rome. He was a contemporary of Marcello Malpighi, father of microscopic anatomy and personal physician to Pope Innocenzo XII. When Malpighi died in 1694, his pupil Giorgio Baglivi performed an autopsy in the presence of Giovanni Maria Lancisi, a leading Roman physician and anatomist. Baglivi and Lancisi wrote the only reports known to date of the autopsy. Research in the Archivio Apostolico Vaticano uncovered an unpublished manuscript by Bernardino Genga describing Malpighi's autopsy. Genga's manuscript, compared in this paper with those of Baglivi and Lancisi, is historically significant because it reveals his presence at Malpighi's autopsy, demonstrating he was alive in 1694. This new evidence prompts a re-evaluation of Genga's unsettled chronology and the context of his latest works, previously deemed posthumous.
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BagliviG. De praxi medica ad priscam observandi rationem revocanda: Libri duo. Accedunt dissertationes novae: Historia morbi et sectionis cadaveris Marcelli Malpighii archiatri pontificii. Lugduni Batavorum: Apud Fredericum Haringium, 1700, pp. 115–117.
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LancisiGM. Extract of a letter from Jean Marie Lancisi, Prof. Anat. Rom. to Mr. Bourdelot, giving an account of Mr. Malpighi, the circumstances of his death, and what was found remarkable at the opening of his body. Philos Trans1753; 19: 467–471.
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Genga was taught by Sapienza University professors, including Giovanni Trulli (1599–1661) and his nephew, also named Giovanni (dates unknown), and likely graduated from this university , although no official records of his matriculation have been reported to date.
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GengaB. Anatomia Chirurgica cioè Istoria anatomica dell'ossa, e muscoli del corpo humano, con la descritione de vasi più riguardevoli che scorrono per le parti esterne, & un breve trattato del moto, che chiamano circolatione del sangue. Rome: Nicolò Angelo Tinassi, 1672.
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GengaB. Anatomia per uso et intelligenza del disegno ricercata non solo su gl'ossi, e muscoli del corpo humano, ma dimostrata ancora su le statue antiche più insigni di Roma: delineata in più tavole con tutte le figure in varie faccie e vedute. Rome: Domenico de Rossi, 1691.
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GengaB. In Hippocratis Aphorismos ad chirurgiam spectantes, commentaria. Roma: Stamperia Camerale, 1694.
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Preliminary analysis of Latin passages was assisted by digital tools; all translations and interpretations were critically reviewed and refined by the author.
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Expositio rerum notabilium repertarum in dissectione cadaveris praeclarissimi ac immarcescibilis famae viri Marcelli Malpighii Sanctissimi D[omini] N[ostri] Papae Innocentii XII medici a secretis facta per me Bernardinum Genga Kalendis Xmbris [Decembris] 1694
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Transactis horis quatraginta, et ultra post mortem sup[rascrip] ti Malpighii deventum fuit ad cadaveris dissectionem, ut viscerum perscrutarentur latebrae ac tam celeris sequutae mortis dignoscerentur solidiores causae, quae possent certius oculo anathomico patefieri. Hin[c], corporis extrinseca superficie conspecta, mediocri potius gracilitate quam obesitate referta, ad thoracis apertionem deventum, ut nobilissimi visceres, cordis inquam, aliarumque contentarum partium conditiones patefierent.
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Sublato itaque sterno, ac lateraliter deductis costis, sectoque mediastino comparuere pulmones moliusculae quidem, sed potius laudabilis conditionis, quamquam in parte ipsius sinistra rubicundior conspiceretur ex inibi remorato sanguine, Latitabat in medio Cor pericardio contectum, ipsoque pericardio dissecto serositas visa fuit obscurior quam par est, ad quantitatem duarum unciarum circiter. Quod magis tamen dignum admiratione fuit reputatum, certo Cor ipsum censebatur mole potius maiori, quod in dextero ventriculo nil vitiosum demonstravit; at ad levae latus adeo intumebat, et durum ac tactui renitens observatum, ut aperto sinistro ventriculo parietes eiusdem trium digitorum transversorum crassitiem fere adaequarent; haec autem durities per me antiquitus morbosa fuit recensita. In sinubus ambobus nihil morbosum, nec polyposum, nec a debito naturali statu recedens latebat.
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Sublato itaque tali modo sterno et notis costis faciliorique reddita ventris infirmi aperitione ac contentarum partium observatione, ventriculum ac intestina epiploon supertecta lustravimus, nullo vitio labefactata. Hepar mole ac crassitie laudabilis potius visum fuit: Cistis colidoca bilem crassam ac sublividam decenti quantitate repleta agnovimus, splen moliusculum suo naturali colore donatum exiguum tamen, ita ut eius pondus semilibram vix aequaret: inculpabile vidimus Pancreas. Hoc peracto placuit accuratius renes scrutari quorum dexter exiguus visus est triplo sinistro, substantiaque flacidiori; sinister vero ad naturalem conditionem melius accedebat; sed vitiati inquam dexteri renis perscrutando intimiorem structuram plures grandiusculas arenulas invenimus, ac pelvium unacum uretere satis amplum, ex quo potuit causa dignosci quare quoties nefriticis calculosis passionibus devexaretur, de facili calculis patebat transitus in vessica, facilisque sequebatur eorundem extrusio: secta denique ipsa urinali vessica nihil extra naturalem statum dignovimus praeter calculum exiguum admodum.
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ColvinRBChangA. Diagnostic pathology: Kidney diseases. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier, 2016, pp. 918–923 (Obstructive Uropathy); pp. 924–31 (Nephrolithiasis).
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Ascendimus ultimo ad caput factaque ossis cranii laboriosa aperitione dignovimus ipsum valde crassum, ac fortioribus laminis, arctioribusque suturis compaginarum eiusdem intrinsecae superficie dura mater adeo tenaciter adhaerebat ut non nisi summa difficultate potuerit segregari. Pia mater vasculi sanguiferis circumfusa ab eorundem vasorum turgentiam conspiciebatur obscura; Cum autem discinderemus dextera cerebri partem, erupit statim copiosa concreti sanguinis quantitas ultra librae pondus, et hoc structura ipsius dexteri sinus devastata remanserat. Sinister ventriculus turgebat serosa sublivida ac obscura humiditate, sed quod mirabilius agnovi fuit aggregatio seu concretio nonnullarum (dicam) arenularum, quae exiguum calculum seminis milii grandioris magnitudinem referebat; cerebellum illesum remanserat.
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Haec in tam magni viri cadavericis partibus observare contingit, nec sit mirum solidissimum cranium lapillumque fuisse repertum, cum proprium sit durae mentis solidam sapientiam sustinere, cuius merito concludere possum proferto in encomium: Semper honos nomenque suum, laudesque manebunt.
