In addition to numerous preparations and anatomical models divided into various sections (osteology, angiology, splancnology, embryology), the Museum of Human Anatomy “Filippo Civinini” preserves valuable archaeological collections, including an Egyptian mummy with sarcophagus, referring to the expedition by Ippolito Rosellini and François Champollion in the first half of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, pre-Columbian mummies with funerary outfits and vases, were collected by the doctor and scholar Carlo Regnoli in the second half of the nineteenth century. The museum exhibition is completed by the “Galleria dei Busti”, with plaster casts of ancient anatomists, and the “Galleria Mascagni”, where the anatomical plates of Paolo Mascagni (1755-1815) are exhibited. The visitor will be faced with an exciting interweaving of the study of the human body, art and history.

Pisa was one of the first University Cities to have a School of Anatomy: the teaching of Human Anatomy began at the behest of Cosimo I de’ Medici who built an Anatomical Theatre. In that period, the famous Andrea Vesalio (1514-1564), considered the father of modern anatomy, was called to Pisa to perform dissections. After him other illustrious masters were called to teach anatomy in the Pisan School, including Realdo Colombo (from 1545 to 1548), Gabriele Falloppio (from 1548 to 1551), Carlo Fracassati (from 1665 to 1668), Lorenzo Bellini (from 1668 to 1703), Paolo Mascagni (in 1801), Filippo Civinini (from 1835 to 1842) and Filippo Pacini (from 1844 to 1846). These were the bases for the birth of the Human Anatomy Museum in Pisa.

The Museum was initially set up in the early nineteenth century by Tommaso Biancini, dissector and professor of Anatomy. From 1834 Filippo Civinini (after whom the Museum is named), continued the work of arrangement and cataloguing and officially opened it under the name of Anatomical Cabinet, in view of the First Meeting of Italian Scientists, held in Pisa in 1839. In 1841 the preparations preserved were already 1327, today there are about 3400.

L’offerta SMArt del Sistema Museale di Ateneo

The Museums of Sistema Museale di Ateneo of Pisa

© 2018 Museo di Anatomia Umana “Filippo Civinini”