A RENAISSANCE PROMOTER OF MODERN SURGERY.

The present paper aims, exploring the history of Renaissance medicine, to evoke the figure and work of the priest, surgeon and anatomist, Guido Guidi (Vidus Vidius) (1509-1569). The XVIth century is considered a period marked by artistic and scientific effervescence in the western part of Europe and Guido Guidi was a first order personality, grandson of Domenico Ghirlandaio and friend of Benvenuto Cellini. He was appointed by the King Francis I the first professor of anatomy and surgery at the newly founded College de France. On demand of the King, he wrote Chirurgia j Graeco in Latinum conversa Vido Vidio Florentino interprete, cum nonnullis eiusdem Vidii comentariis (1544), a beautifully illustrated original surgery book that became for the following two centuries the main source in teaching surgery. Our study realized a detailed assessment of the book and especially of its illustrations belonging to Francesco Salviati. Exploring the life of Guido Guidi, we were also able to point out other significant contributions in the field of anatomy and clinical medicine as De anatome the first book where are presented disarticulated, the bones of the skull base and also the discovery of the chickenpox. Some surgical personalities attributed to him both the elaboration of the term appendix vermiformis and the first description of an aneurysm, he treated with the help of Fallopio. Although forgotten today, Guido Guidi was a leading figure of the Renais sance medicine both in France and Italy.