Museo di anatomia di Modena

Opened in 1854, and enriched until 1926 to work especially directors anatomical Paul Gaddi and Joseph Sperino, the Museum has about eleven hundred pieces on display according to the criterion of descriptive anatomy, it purposes documentative different apparatuses human. Among the natural preparations, are unique collection of fetal skeletons upright fixed in various attitudes (49 specimens from the second to the eighth month of growth) and three female mummies made in the nineteenth century. Notable also appear two collections of skulls: the collection of ethnographic and anthropological Gaddi and interesting group of skulls classified according to the theory of Lombroso, founder of criminal anthropology. Worthy of particular attention are also the anatomical waxes performed in the second half of the nineteenth century by the wax modeller Remigio Lei, in force at the University of Modena as modeler Institute of Anatomy, and the eighteenth-century painted terracotta, almost any size, depicting the different stages of pregnancy and childbirth, by the Bolognese Giovan Battista Manfredini under the guidance anatomist Francesco Febbrari. The museum was originated in an initial core built under the reign of Francis III of Este, corresponding to the current ground floor with inclusion of the gallery, the anatomy theater and some adjacent spaces. The inauguration of the theater came in 1775 for commitment of the famous anatomist Antonio Scarpa, professor of anatomy at the University of Modena. The inauguration of the Theatre was laid by the same shoe, which was inspired by the anatomy theater of the University, the oldest in Italy. In this first phase was not yet understood the museum, however some pieces kept there date back to that period; it know, for example, that the same shoe had invited in Modena on wax modeller Giovan Battista Manfredini, who had previously performed fifty models subject obstetrician clay, to make several preparations, now untraceable. Since its inauguration, the physiognomy of the museum, with the four interconnecting rooms, bulletin boards, and the windows of the typical nineteenth-century layout has remained unchanged: to what it should display on the notice boards of the third room also prepared for animals, due to fact that for a long time comparative anatomy has been an integral part of the anatomical research in general.