MORGAGNI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. 1682-1771.


Autograph Letter Signed ("Giambattista Morgagni") in Italian, to Dr. Baldissera Ippoliti de Paradiso regarding his manuscript, 1 p, folio, integral address leaf, Padua, August 1, 1756, later ink notations to margin, some staining. In part: "I have received from my colleague and friend [Francesco] Vandelli, the manuscript of your very illustrious person. Mr. Vandelli and I join and give approval and justice on the first point...." Morgagni is widely considered the father of modern anatomical pathology, and his De Sedibus (1761) "established a new era in medical research" Grolier Medicine 46. "By this great work, one of the most important in the history of medicine, Morgagni was the true founder of modern pathological anatomy. The work consists of a series of 70 letters reporting about 700 cases and necropsies. As best he could, he correlated the clinical record with the post mortem findings. Morgagni gave the first descriptions of several pathological conditions" (Garrison-Morton 2276). Accompanied by a steel engraved portrait of Morgagni by William Holl (1838).