Medicine as Queen: The Consilia of Bartolomeo da Montagnana

Abstract

Like many other writers in the Quattrocento, the physician-historian Michele Savonarola wrote a Libellus to praise the history, merits, monuments, and beauties of his town, which in his case was Padua. Among the accolades for its most distinguished citizens, who contributed to different fields, he lists famous physicians who adorned Padua with their contributions to medicine. The last physician in the list is Antonio Cermisone, but his disciple and colleague, Bartolomeo da Montagnana, does not appear. Perhaps Savonarola thought that Montagnana’s fame had not yet been fully confirmed. Or perhaps Savonarola’s very high praise of Cermisone indicates he considered Cermisone the pinnacle of the Paduan studium and its medical learning. Regardless, Montagnana’s studies and his whole academic career, along with his life as a practitioner and his fame, developed entirely within the town of Padua until his death in 1452. Montagnana is a prime example of how, in the fifteenth century, there is a growing tendency for teachers in main Italian Universities to remain in the same place, and for descendants of physicians to occupy the same professional and teaching positions. Indeed, Montagnana’s father (Giacomo) was a surgeon, and at least one of his children became a physician trained and subsequently practicing in Padua.