[Andreas Vesalius in Pisa].

Andreas Vesalius is the most commanding figure in European medicine, after Galen and before Harvey. His dissections and lectures were in considerable demand. Having just published the De humani corporis fabrica, and before operating as a private physician of Emperor Charles V, the anatomist spent some months conducting demonstrations of anatomy at the universities of Bologna, Pisa and Florence.

[Angelo Maffucci and the experimental medicine].

Maffucci had been interested in experimental pathology since 1879. His activity is documented by some experimental works mainly performed at the "Incurabili" Hospital of Neaples, Italy, where he first approached this discipline under the direction of the well-known German pathologist Otto von Schrön. His publications between the years 1882 and 1887, when he was already director to Pisa, were concerned with the infectious embryo pathology, the absorption in the peritoneum and in the articulations, as well as with hypertrophic cirrhosis of the liver, which represented a perfect combination of experimentation and autopsy.

An anencephalus foetus petrified by Gerolamo Segato (1792-1836).

We report the case of an anencephalic foetus petrified by Gerolamo Segato in the course of his experiments on body conservation. The specimen has been studied applying non-invasive methods. Digital radiography and computed tomography (CT) alogside more advanced techniques such as three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction and virtual endoscopy (VE) have been used to investigate anatomic morphology and to perform hypotheses about Segato's method of petrification which is still unknown.

The aortic coarctation and the Etruscan man: morphohistologic diagnosis of an ancient cardiovascular disease.

Reports of cardiovascular diseases in ancient time are very rare since the material mainly consists of skeletal remains; therefore, these diagnoses can only be carried out indirectly, through the marks left on bones. Here we show a case of coarctation of the aorta diagnosed on bones. Aortic coarctation is a congenital disorder in which a portion of the aorta is narrowed to various extent.

Short report: cysticercosis in an Egyptian mummy of the late Ptolemaic period.

We describe here an ancient case of cysticercosis that was discovered in an Egyptian mummy of a young woman of about 20 years of age who lived in the late Ptolemaic period (second to first centuries b.c.).

The embalming, the scientific method and the paleopathology: the case of Gaetano Arrighi (1836).

Since the most ancient times the problem of the artificial preservation of dead bodies has been an important object of study. In ancient and classic times the reasons leading to this practice were essentially of a religious and esoteric type, but in the modern age, following the development of medical and biological studies, embalming has assumed a more practical trend which is both medicine and scientific. The discovery of blood circulation has marked the scientific method which, in its various forms, has circulated all over Europe bringing fame to eminent anatomists such as Federico Ruysch (1638-1731), William (1718-1783) and John Hunter (1728-1793), Jean Nicolas Gannal (1791-1852), Giuseppe Tranchina, Laskowky and Brosch, who affirmed the embalming by endoarterial injection of conservation fluids making evisceration useless and obsolete.

[Angelo Maria Maffucci (1845-1903) and the beginning of pathological anatomy in Pisa].

In 1884, at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Pisa, the new chair of pathology was inaugurated and Angelo Maria Maffucci was appointed first director. Angelo Maffucci was born in 1845 in Calitri, near Avellino, from a farming family. After graduating in medicine at Naples, in 1872, he started his scientific work at the institute of pathology, under Otto von Schrön (1837-1917).

[Ergonomic pathology of Pandolfo III Malatesta].

Pandolfo III Malatesta, Prince of Fano, was born in 1370 from Galeotto Malatesta and Gentile Varano. He was a leading figure of the Italian Renaissance and Captain General of the troops of the Republic of Venice in the war against the Visconti of Milan and the Hungarians. The Prince represents a typical example of a XVth century condottiere.

[Ancient DNA studies: from paleopathology to population genetics].

We discuss the relevance of ancient DNA studies for novel approaches to a variety of fields of scientific inquiry, including population and evolutionary genetics, prehistoric archaeology, paleopathology and history of human diseases. To exemplify the potential of ancient DNA research, we provide accounts of studies currently conducted at our laboratories in four different areas: 1) origins of the dog and phylogeny of prehistoric Italian canids; 2) paleogenetics of ancient Roma; 3) antiquity for variant alleles implicated in disease predisposition; 4) molecular investigation of pathologic lesions in Italian mummies of Renaissance age. The implications of the results obtained are briefly outlined.