Giovanni Antonio Galli (1708–1782) was a physician who pioneered the teaching of
obstetrics
Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...
in
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
using three-dimensional models.
Giovanni Antonio Galli was born in 1708.
He was appointed a Professor in the School of Surgery of the
University of Bologna
The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...
.
Galli opened a school on obstetrics in his house.
He encouraged
Anna Morandi Manzolini
Anna Morandi Manzolini (21 January 1714 – 9 July 1774) was an internationally known anatomist and anatomical wax modeler, as lecturer of anatomical design at the University of Bologna.
Life
Morandi was born in 1714 in Bologna, Italy. She wa ...
, wife and assistant of the wax anatomical modeler
Giovanni Manzolini
Giovanni Manzolini (1700-1755) was a Bolognese artist, an expert maker of wax anatomical models and a professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna.
His wife Anna Morandi Manzolini also became a well-known maker of wax anatomical models.
E ...
, to give private lectures on anatomy.
She had learned from her husband and from her own experience in dissection, and gained a European reputation.
Anna Morandi was widowed in 1755. Soon after, she was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the
Academy of Sciences of Bologna Institute
The Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna (''Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna'') is an academic society in Bologna, Italy, that was founded in 1690 and prospered in the Age of Enlightenment. Today it is closely associated ...
.
In 1757 Galli was made Professor of Obstetrics at the Bologna Institute in the
Palazzo Poggi
The Palazzo Poggi is a ''Palace#Italy, palazzo'' in Via Zamboni 33, Bologna, Italy.
It is the headquarters of the University of Bologna and of the Rector_(academia), rector of the university.
History
The Palazzo Poggi was built as the home of Al ...
,
and the next year
Pope Benedict XIV
Pope Benedict XIV ( la, Benedictus XIV; it, Benedetto XIV; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 17 August 1740 to his death in May 1758.Antipope ...
overrode opposition and established a school of obstetrics at the Institute.
The Pope acquired Galli's collection of teaching models for use in the Institute's school.
Galli's first twenty models were made by the Manzolinis,
and eventually the institute would have over 150 obstetrical models.
Galli invented a machine to simulate the birthing process for teaching medical students and midwives.
Galli's school was unusual in combining theory and practice in his teaching method,
and at that time unusual in teaching the subject in a medical and surgical school.
He died in 1782.
References
Citations
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Galli, Giovanni Antonio
1708 births
1782 deaths
Italian obstetricians