Alessandro Achillini

Alessandro Achillini (Latin Alexander Achillinus; 20[1] or 29[2][3] October 1463[4] (or possibly 1461[1]) – 2 August 1512) was an Italian philosopher and physician.

He is known for the anatomic studies that he was able to publish, made possible by a 13th-century edict putatively by Emperor Frederick II allowing for dissection of human cadavers, and which previously had stimulated the anatomist Mondino de Luzzi (c. 1270 – 1326) at Bologna.

He was unskilled in the arts of adulation and double-dealing to such a degree that his most witty and imprudent students often regarded him as an object of ridicule, even though they honored him as a teacher.

In 1503 he showed that the tarsus (middle part of the foot) consists of seven bones, he rediscovered the fornix and the infundibulum of the brain.

[8] Achillini also received two strongly-worded letters in August and September 1507 from the Commune of Bologna stating that his absence was unauthorized, and if it continued he would be penalized severely (500 ducats of gold for the first offense).

And though he later shifted his focus to academia, he remained an active theologian throughout his life and contributed to two General Congresses of the Franciscan Order; one in Bologna in 1494 and another held in Rome between 1505 and 1506.

The extent of Achillini's endorsement is difficult to discern, but it is believed he and his contemporaries at the university instigated a brief Ockhamistic revival as reflected by his students' later works.

[10] The “Anatomical Notes by the Great Alexander Achillinus of Bologna” demonstrate a detailed description of the human body.

In this work, Achillinus also gives directions as how to proceed with certain dissections and procedures such as castration, extraction of stone, and removal of the rib cage to further examine the heart and lungs.