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Profilo storico | Historical Profile 41

from the following generation, biology and philosophy were gradually
separated, coherently with the development of the natural sciences and
chemistry in the eighteenth century.
The contents of the physics courses, that were held by the public Studi-
um of San Carlo, are not known, but in the last years, between 1763 and
1769, a leading personality as Lazzaro Spallanzani taught there. He ar-
rived in Modena as professor of Greek language and mathematics by the
San Carlo College, and then became philosophy reader in the Studium.
A Modena primacy, it is recorded in the chemistry field, discipline at
that time in the process of academic definition: in 1686-1687 Francesco
Piacenza taught in fact a course of Criminal Procedure, ciphers, geo-hy-
drography and “de philosophia chimica” (“of chemistry philosophy”).
After the short appearance in the Modena Studium, the first learning of
chemistry in Italy was introduced in Bologna in 1711 (but only in 1737
the Bologna University instituted the relative chair); in Modena, the dis-
cipline entered definitively with the reform of Francesco III in 1772.

Medicine

In 1682, when the Studium opened, it was present only a chair of Med-
icine, a second one was added in 1685. Two professors, Bernardino Ra-
mazzini and Francesco Torti, subdivided the teachings of Medical Insti-
tutions and Aphorisms of Hippocrates.
To the traditional lectures on fevers and Hippocratic aphorisms, both
luminaries of Modena medicine of seventeenth century added courses
on innovative aspects of the discipline, as an exposition on the glands of
the human body or Ramazzini lectures about de morbis artificum (diseases
of workers), lectures given in 1690-91 that are at the origin of the hom-
onymous treatise. If the teachings given in that years include Ramazzini
between the fathers of the medicine of work, Francesco Torti wasn’t less
important. Thanks to his anatomy courses, he got the construction of an

Bust of Bernardino Ramazzini, Anatomical Theatre hall, Modena Busto di Francesco Torti, atrio del Teatro Anatomico di Modena Bust of Francesco Torti, Anatomical Theatre hall, Modena