Pietro da Tossignano also known as Pietro Curialti (c.1350 – 8 April 1407) was a professor of medicine in

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

and

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, 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 1 ...

. He was born near

Imola Imola (; rgn, Jômla or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical ...

, and may have studied in both

and

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

. At 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 continu ...

, he is said to have studied under the prominent physician

Tommaso del Garbo Tommaso del Garbo or Thomas de Garbo (c.1305, in Florence – 1370, in Florence) was a professor of medicine in Perugia and Bologna. He was the son of the physician Dino del Garbo and a friend of the poet Petrarch. It is said that the physician ...

. He married young in 1372 to the wealthy daughter of the count Ruffini della Ragazza. Acquiring a diploma in 1376, he obtained a teaching position in Padua, where he won favor with the House of Carrara. But the position of professor of Medicine was granted to Jacopo Zanettini, and by 1378, Pietro had moved to teach at the University of Bologna. By 1386, he was granted Bolognese citizenship. He was required to provide two thousand Lire as a deposit for not leaving his employment. He was admitted to the ''Collegio dei medici'' in town. However, by 1390 he had moved out of Bologna, causing the University and the City government to expel him and confiscate his properties. He moved to Ferrara, then Pavia, where he became the personal physician of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and taught at the university. In 1398, as part of a medical manuscript printed in Venice, he published a series of recommendation for the care of those afflicted by bubonic plague
Consilium pro peste evitanda
. He advanced the notion that the disease was contagious and recommended isolation of the ill, fumigation of their rooms, masking by those coming in contact, and certain diets for the afflicted. He advocated the prohibition of marriages and public crowds during an epidemic. He was acting in writing medical books including ''De peste'', ''De remediis ac pestilentiae curatione'', ''Tractatus. de pestilentia'', ''De pydemia'', ''Receptae''. Pietro appears to have been able to travel far afield, perhaps to Spain and Germany, to treat

Henry III of Castile Henry III of Castile (4 October 1379 – 25 December 1406), called the Suffering due to his ill health (, ), was the son of John I and Eleanor of Aragon. He succeeded his father as King of Castile in 1390. Birth and education Henry was bor ...

and Rupert of the Palatinate respectively. The latter ruler accused the physician of attempting to poison him. Pietro returns to Pavia, but soon is readmitted to Bologna, where he dies.Treccani Encyclopedia
entry on Pietro Curialti by Augusto De Ferrari - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 31 (1985).

Reference

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tossignano Pietro Physicians from Bologna 14th-century Italian physicians 15th-century Italian physicians 1350 births 1470 deaths