Portret van Marcus Aurelius Severinus, RP-P-1909-5085

Marco Aurelio Severino (November, 1580 – July 12, 1656) was an Italian

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

and

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

Biography

Severino was born in Tarsia (

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, Italy), of Giovanni Jacopo Severino, a lawyer. He died of

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

in 1656 in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. Adept of the

atomist Atomism (from Greek , ''atomon'', i.e. "uncuttable, indivisible") is a natural philosophy proposing that the physical universe is composed of fundamental indivisible components known as atoms. References to the concept of atomism and its atoms a ...

views of

Democritus Democritus (; el, Δημόκριτος, ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. No ...

, he disregarded

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

. He met

Tommaso Campanella Tommaso Campanella (; 5 September 1568 – 21 May 1639), baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. He was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 and w ...

and corresponded with

William Harvey William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and proper ...

and

Thomas Bartholin Thomas Bartholin (; Onomastic Latinizatio, Latinized as ''Thomas Bartholinus''; 20 October 1616 – 4 December 1680) was a Denmark, Danish physician, mathematician, and theology, theologian. He is best known for his work in the discovery of t ...

. He was familiar of the works of scientists of the antiquity like

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...

and

Lactantius Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325) was an early Christian author who became an advisor to Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence, and a tutor to his son Cr ...

. He also was the author of a book called ''The philosophy of

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

'' (''La filosofia degli scacchi''). Marco Aurelio Severino - La filosofia overo il perche degli scacchi 1690 007

Controversy

Besides his brilliant career as a surgeon and professor, his works present an ambiguous aspect. He includes mystic speculations, and his work attempts to coincide with his religious beliefs.

Selected works

Severino, Marco Aurelio – Vipera Pythia, 1651 – BEIC 8744113

*''De recondita abscessuum natura'', O. Beltrani, Naples, 1632 ** . Frankfurt, 1643 *
Zootomia democritaea, id est anatome generalis totius animantium opificii : libris quinque distincta, quorum seriem sequens facies delineabit
'. Nuremberg, 1645, in-40, * , Frankfurt, 1646 * ''De viperae natura, veneno, medicina demonstrationes et experimenta nova'', P. Frambotti, Padua, 1650 * * ''Trimembris chirurgia'', Schönwetter, Frankfort, 1653 * , Naples, 1653 (With a commentary by

) * ''Quaestiones anatomicae quatuor'', Frankfort, 1654 * ''Antiperipatias. Hoc est adversus Aristoteleos de respiratione piscium diatriba. De piscibus in sicco viventibus commentarius... Phoca illustratus...'', 2 vol., Naples, H. C. Cavalli, 1655–1659 (Includes a short biography) * ''Synopseos chirurgiae libri sex'', E. Weyerstroten, Amsterdam, 1664

Lists of works

Severino gave us a list of his printed works and manuscripts, which is made up of nine parts and extends on four pages. It can be found in a 1653 edition ''Therapeuta Neapolitanus'' : . Thi
list
can also be consulted on http://gso.gbv.de/

External links

on th

website

(in French), on the ''Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de Médecine'' website 1580 births 1656 deaths {{Italy-scientist-stub