Alessandra Giliani

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Alessandra Giliani
Anathomia corporis humani
title page (Leipzig edition dated 1493)
Born1307
Died26 March 1326
NationalityItalian
Known forAnatomy
Scientific career
FieldsAnatomist

Alessandra Giliani (1307 – 26 March 1326) is best known as the first woman to be recorded in historical documents as practicing anatomy and pathology.[1] She's reputed to have worked as a prosector, preparing corpses for anatomical study, under the famed anatomist Mondino de' Liuizzi at the University of Bologna.[1][2] However, all evidence of her work has been either lost or destroyed.[2] Giliani is mentioned in Michele Medici's 1857 history of the Bolognese school of anatomy, but some argue she was invented by the writer Alessandro Macchiavelli in the 18th century.[3] Her purported contributions to anatomy are significant nonetheless.[1][2][4]

Early Life and Education

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Giliani is believed to have been born in 1307, in San Giovanni in Persiceto, in the Italian province of Emilia-Romagna.[1] She is said to have served as an assistant to de' Liuizzi specializing in dissection demonstrations as a prosector, an anatomist who prepares corpses for dissection in academic settings.[1][2] Given her reported death at the age of 19, her involvement in anatomical studies would have occurred during her late teens.[1][2] In 1316, de' Liuizzi published a seminal text on the subject entitled, Anathomia corporis humani.[5] The earliest edition of the work was printed in Padua between 1475 and 1478.[6]

Anathomia illustration, Mondino dei Liuzzi, published in 1541

Evidence of Giliani's activities at the University of Bologna is scarce.[2] Aside from her mention in Michele Medici's 1857 text, there are no contemporary records documenting her life or work. Some historians speculate that she may have disguised herself as a man to circumvent legal restrictions against women in medicine and academia.[2] Eighteenth-century images of Mondino de' Liuizzi's anatomy lessons depict him accompanied by a young person who appears to be a female dressed in men's clothing, whom some believe might represent Giliani.[2] There is also speculation that records of her work were destroyed by the church after her death, removing all traces of her accomplishments.[2]

Research and Career

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Despite the aura of mystery surrounding her existence, Giliani is credited with being a brilliant prosector, preparing bodies for anatomical analysis.[1][2] She reportedly developed a method of injecting colored dye, possibly made from melted wax, into the vessels of cadavers to better visualize their structure.[1] This technique provided a more detailed understanding of blood circulation, prefiguring William Harvey's work 300 years later.[2][4]

During Giliani's time, medical understanding of blood circulation was limited. Many researchers believed that blood diffused from the right to left ventricle through "invisible pores in the septum."[7] If the accounts of Giliani's work are accurate, she may have helped document the circulatory pathways centuries before Harvey formally described the heart as a pump circulating blood throughout the body.[2]

Personal life

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According to some accounts, Giliani may have been engaged to Otto Angenius before her death at the age of 19.[1][2]

Legacy

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Some scholars consider her to be a fiction invented in the sixteenth century by  Alessandro Machiavelli (1693–1766)[8] whilst others hold that the participation of a woman in anatomy at that time caused her to be edited out of history.[5]

Barbara Quick's novel, A Golden Web, published by HarperTeen in 2010, is historical fiction based on the life and times of Alessandra Giliani.[2][9] Giliani is among the 1,038 women honored in Judy Chicago's renowned art installation The Dinner Party.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oakes, Elizabeth H. (2007). Encyclopedia of world scientists (Rev. ed.). New York: Facts on File. ISBN 978-1438118826.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Alessandra Giliani: 14th-century Italian anatomist". www.lostwomenofscience.org. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  3. ^ a b "Components of The Dinner Party". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  4. ^ a b Stadler, Marta Macho (2016-11-07). "Alessandra Giliani (1307-1326): entre cadáveres". Mujeres con ciencia (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  5. ^ a b Quick, Barbara. "Alessandra in History". A Golden Web. Archived from the original on 2011-06-25. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  6. ^ Castiglioni, Arturo (1941). A History of Medicine. New York: Knopf.
  7. ^ Aird, W. C. (2011-07-01). "Discovery of the cardiovascular system: from Galen to William Harvey". Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. State of the Art 2011. 9: 118–129. doi:10.1111/j.1538-7836.2011.04312.x. ISSN 1538-7836.
  8. ^ Anthony Grafton , Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship , 1990 Note 5 on p. 138
  9. ^ "A Golden Web". HarperCollins. Retrieved 2025-06-12.

Sources

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  • Castiglioni, Arturo (1941). A History of Medicine. Translated by Krumbhaar, E.B. New York: Knopf.