He occupied a position of extraordinary
prominence, was regarded as the first citizen of Bologna and a public
benefactor exempt from the payment of taxes. That he should have
acquired wealth is not surprising if his usual fees were at the rate
at which he charged Pope Honorius IV, i.e., two hundred florins a day,
besides a "gratification" of six thousand florins.
The man who most powerfully influenced the study of medicine in Bologna
was Mundinus, the first modern student of anatomy. We have seen that
at the school of Salernum it was decreed that the human body should be
dissected at least once every five years, but it was with the greatest
difficulty that permission was obtained for this purpose. It seems
probable that under the strong influence of Taddeo there was an
occasional dissection at Bologna, but it was not until Mundinus
(professor from 1306 to 1326) took the chair that the study of anatomy
became popular. The bodies were usually those of condemned criminals,
but in the year 1319 there is a record of a legal procedure against four
medical students for body-snatching--the first record, as far as I know,
of this gruesome practice. In 1316, Mundinus issued his work on anatomy,
which served as a text-book for more than two hundred years.
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