Geronimo Mercuriali (1530-1606)1,3 (Fig. 1) was born in Forli and educated at Padua. After obtaining his medical degree, he studied in Rome for seven years, gaining a thorough knowledge of the classical and medical literature of Greece and Rome. He became a distinguished professor of medicine, first at Padua (1569-1587), then at Bologna (1587-1599), and finally at Pisa (1599-1606). His publications were numerous and substantial.Fig. 1: Geronimo Mercuriali (1530-1606). (Reproduced with permission from Gnudi, M. T., and Webster, J. P.: The Life and Times of Gaspare Tagliacozzi. New York, Herbert Reichner, 1950.)As a result of his scholarship, the authenticity of works attributed to Hippocrates was established, and the text was corrected and restored. In his Variae Lectiones (1571), he clarified many obscure passages from Hippocrates, and in 1588 he edited and published the Greek text of Hippocrates' works with a Latin translation.4 This is considered by scholars to be an important edition.5 He wrote on a wide variety of other subjects. In 1572 he published the first systematic textbook of dermatology, De morbis cutaneis; in 1583, a textbook of pediatrics, De morbis puerorum; and in 1584, the first manual on the treatment of diseases of the ear, De compositione medicamentorum tractatus, tres libros complectens, eiusdem de oculorum et zurium affectionibus praelectiones. In their biography of Gaspare Tagliacozzi, the founder of plastic surgery, Gnudi and Webster6 describe the scientific and cultural life in Bologna during the latter part of the sixteenth century when Tagliacozzi and Mercuriali were colleagues on the faculty of the medical school. Mercuriali was a powerful figure to whom Tagliacozzi addressed an important letter describing his method of rhinoplasty with a pedicle graft from the arm. Mercuriali gave Tagliacozzi strong support and attested to the success of the method. Today Mercuriali is remembered for a small book written early in his career, Artis gymnasticae apud antiguos celeberrimae, nostris temporibus ignoratae, published in Venice in 1569. This work proved to be popular and went through six editions, the last printed in Amsterdam in 1672.7 It was the first illustrated book on the relation between medicine, sports, and the role of exercise in gaining and preserving health. Its woodcuts are charming and interesting today (Figs. 2-8). Written only 26 years after the appearance of the anatomy of Vesalius, it is imbued with the Renaissance spirit of scholarship and humanism. In 1864 Blundell2 summarized the contents in an English translation that is not a translation at all but a paraphrase with substantial deletions and interpolations.Fig. 2: Rope climbing. (Figures 2-8 are taken from Mercurialis, Hieronymi: De artis gymnastica, libri sex, ed. 4. Venice, Iuntas, 1601.)Fig. 3: Juggling.Fig. 4: Medicine ball.Fig. 5: The discus.Fig. 6: Boxing.Fig. 7: Wrestling.Fig. 8: Activities for women.The Artis gymnasticae of Mercuriali is a history of the attitudes and practices of the Greeks and Romans in regard to diet, hygiene, bathing, and exercise, and their effects on health and disease. Mercuriali quotes more than 120 works from Greek and Roman authors, both classical and medical. Since the basic goal of pedagogy in ancient Greece was to produce a sound mind in a healthy body (Mens sana in corpore sano), physical exercise (gymnasticus) was an important feature of the curriculum. The program of exercise, sports, and games was conducted in a special school (gymnasium). The purpose of Mercuriali's book was to point out to his contemporaries, excited by the revival of humanism and classical education, the important role of physical education in any such program. He sought to foster a balanced approach in which both the education of the mind and the training of the body were carried on in harmony. Disharmony, the favoring of one discipline over the other, was to be avoided. Examples of disharmony can be found in our society, with the promotion of the healthy body over, or even to the exclusion of, the educated mind. In his play Man and Superman, written in 1905, George Bernard Shaw comments, “Mens sana in corpore sano is a foolish saying. The sound body is a product of a sound mind.” ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author gratefully acknowledges Herbert Reichner, Publishers, for reprint of the portrait of Geronimo Mercuriali from The Life and Times of Gaspare Tagliacozzi.