FALLOPPIO, GABRIELE. - Born in Modena in 1523, died in Padova on 9 Oct. 1562. A pupil of Musa Brasavola in Ferrara, he renounced a canonry in order to devote himself to his preferred studies of anatomy and medicine. At the age of 24 (1547) he obtained the chair of anatomy at the Studium of Ferrara. He then moved to that of Pisa until, in 1551, the Republic of Venice appointed him lecturer at the University of Padova, where he subsequently held the chairs of anatomy, surgery, and materia medica. Of great learning, and often called upon for his services, he treated distinguished patients in Milano, Firenze, and Roma; in journeys undertaken for his personal education, he travelled to France and Greece.
His scientific work chiefly concerns surgery and anatomy; but he also dealt with therapeutics, ideology, medical practice, and syphilis. His anatomical discoveries were innumerable; he was ingenious in prescribing new prophylactic, therapeutic, and orthopaedic methods.
Among his writings: Observaciones anatomicas in libros quinque digesta (ibid. 1561); Expansia in librum Galeni de ossibus (Venezia 1570); De compositione medicamentarum cui accesserunt tabulae eiusdem de cauterias (ibid. 1570); Compendium de anatome corporis humani (ibid. 1571).