In 1569 the Senate of the University of Bologna created an extraordinary chair in surgery for him with responsibility to teach anatomy as well and where a statue of him is housed at the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio.

Nevertheless, he is known to have had considerable success in Rome both as a physician and as a surgeon and his memorial plaque in that city refers to his great skill in removing stones.

He putatively was a physician to Pope Gregory XIII, and died in Rome, where he was buried in San Marcello al Corso.

[4][5] Varolius' work is the following: De Nervis Opticis nonnullisque aliis praeter communem opinionem in Humano capite observatis.

[6] A second work by Varolius, a teleologic physiology of man, was published for the first time after his death: Anatomiae sive de resolutione corporis humani ad Caesarem Mediovillanum libri iv, Eiusdem Varolii et Hieron.