Luzzi, Mondino de (c. 1270-1326)

Italian anatomist and surgeon who reintroduced the study of anatomy to Europe, based on the work of Galen, a Greek physician of the 2nd century AD. Galen's texts had been preserved in the Middle East by Arab-speaking scholars after the fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476. Mondino de Luzzi's influential Anathomia Mundin/Anatomy (1316) was based on a translation of Galen's On the use of Parts and de Luzzi's own dissections to prove the validity of Galen's theories. It became the standard text of anatomy professors for over 200 years.

De Luzzi's translation of On the use of Parts was limited because he only had access to half the original text, and this had already been translated into Arabic before de Luzzi translated it again into Latin. He was already a follower of Galen, and intended to spread Galen's theories throughout Europe with his work rather than challenge them. Although de Luzzi did break with medieval practice and dissect human corpses while writing his book, he only did so to prove Galen correct rather than to make any new observations. De Luzzi's work was eventually replaced by the combined efforts of Johannes Guinter, who translated Galen's more important work On Anatomical Procedures in 1531, and his student Andreas Vesalius, who revolutionized the study of anatomy with his dissections of the human body.