Palazzo dell’Archiginnasio
It’s no accident that one of the grander buildings of Bologna University, completed in 1563, is adjacent to the basilica of San Petronio. Pope Pius IV commissioned a central hall to house the various university faculties on this site to prevent the basilica from expanding and surpassing St. Peter’s in Rome in size. Corridors and staircases decorated with the family crests of students lead to the Teatro Anatomico, a handsome lecture hall paneled in spruce where tiers of stiff wooden benches surround a marble slab. The Spellati, two skinless bodies carved in wood, support a canopy above the lecturer’s chair, Apollo gazes down from the ceiling, and statues of Hippocrates and other august physicians line walls. A curious statue of a physician holding a nose pays homage to Gaspare Tagliacozzi, a pioneer of rhinoplasty, or the nose job, much in demand in an era when noses were routinely cut off for punishment or revenge. The most looming presence, though, was a church inquisitor, concealed behind a secret panel to keep an eye on the proceedings and make sure procedures did not waiver from church protocol for cadavers, stipulating that all organs remain in situ and intact, ready for Judgment Day. Surrounding rooms, closed to the public, house some of the university’s most priceless manuscripts.
It’s no accident that one of the grander buildings of Bologna University, completed in 1563, is adjacent to the basilica of San Petronio. Pope Pius IV commissioned a central hall to house the various university faculties on this site to prevent the basilica from expanding and surpassing St. Peter’s in Rome in size. Corridors and staircases decorated with the family crests of students lead to the Teatro Anatomico, a handsome lecture hall paneled in spruce where tiers of stiff wooden benches surround a marble slab. The Spellati, two skinless bodies carved in wood, support a canopy above the lecturer’s chair, Apollo gazes down from the ceiling, and statues of Hippocrates and other august physicians line walls. A curious statue of a physician holding a nose pays homage to Gaspare Tagliacozzi, a pioneer of rhinoplasty, or the nose job, much in demand in an era when noses were routinely cut off for punishment or revenge. The most looming presence, though, was a church inquisitor, concealed behind a secret panel to keep an eye on the proceedings and make sure procedures did not waiver from church protocol for cadavers, stipulating that all organs remain in situ and intact, ready for Judgment Day. Surrounding rooms, closed to the public, house some of the university’s most priceless manuscripts.
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