Origin and Development of Medical Museum in Padua

The scientific museology began in Padua with the Museum of Natural Philosophy of Vallisneri. The purpose of this museum was to educate students and demonstrate what Vallisneri called “philosophical curiosity.” The Padua medical museology started with the anatomical museum of Morgagni in 1756. Morgagni planned the creation of a museum of anatomical and pathological specimens. The cabinets of obstetrics made by Calza in the 1760s was composed by a series of anatomic models in wax and clay, used for Calza’s practical teaching to the pupils. These models represented the physiology and the pathology of the pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. There are reports of a “pathological cabinet” in Padua from the early years of the XIX century: Caldani, Fanzago and Cortese collected pathological specimens in different part of the university. However, the final passage from Cabinet collection to pathological Museum took place in the early 1870s, thanks to Lodovico Brunetti.