An etymological “autopsy” of Morgagni's title: De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis (1761)

Abstract

For the Morgagnian anniversaries of 2011 to 2012, the University of Padua organized a wide research project, trying to understand Morgagni's contribution in his historical context and why he is still considered the father of a new way of thinking in medicine, based on anatomoclinical correlations. Calling his masterpiece De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis, Morgagni placed his research in a specific tradition of medical studies: the mechanistic approach to medicine, considered new in different European contexts. This approach gave Morgagni the theoretical structure to find his anatomopathologic research and the revolutionary idea for his time: post mortem dissections could be useful to understand pathophysiologic mechanisms and clinical symptoms in the living.