With only half a day remaining in Bologna I had a decision to make: which would be more up my alley, a restored theater in where 17th century medical students at the University of Bologna began attending lectures or a collection of mostly waxen medical oddities?
I'd already wandered past the Archiginnasio of Bologna, so I was pretty sure the experience would be more aesthetic than visceral.
Besides, the Collezione delle Cere Anatomiche "Luigi Cattaneo was free and its location also provided an opportunity to see University of Bologna buildings in current use.
Some of the displays were even more disturbing than these, which illustrate conjoined fetuses, albinism and Protean syndrome, the illness that caused David Merrick's incandescent suffering in The Elephant Man and more recently, that of the protagonist in A Different Man, a sublimely creepy exploration of identity.
Prior to X-rays and CAT scans, doctors didn't have much to go on when treating patients with arthritic knees like mine. These cross sections look like lamb shoulder chops.
Obstetrics used to be just as primitive, although after listening to season two of "The Retrievals" podcast from Serial, medicine now entails technical risks that can make pregnancy even more painful!
Not all the models were wax. When I asked a very knowledgeable docent if the displays had any similarity to Bodies: The Exhibition, she said only a few items--like these dehydrated brain slices and skulls--came from actual human beings.
We also had a long conversation about childhood vaccination attitudes in Italy. "It's very similar to the United States," she replied in a tirade that could be boiled down to this: science skeptics exist everywhere.
I didn't get to the church on time to see San Maria dei Servi so I ducked into the Museo Civico d'Arte Industriale e Galleria Davia Bargellini, more commonly known as curiosities of old Bologna.
I inadvertently set off an alarm in this gallery. The guard shrugged his shoulders, as if to say "It happens all the time." The jewel hesit at the Louvre had not yet occurred.
Elaborately costumed Venetian puppet shows toured the city in the 18th century.
Little Bolognese girls played with doll palazzos
. . . which included fully stocked kitchens.
The patron saint of Bologna holds a model of the city in his lap.
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| San Petronio by Innocenzo da Imola (16th Century) |
I wonder what Cupid would think of Materialists? It gets a 👍 from me.
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| "Love Reposing" by Marcantonio Franceschini (17th Century) |
If I managed the gift shop, I would sell reproductions of these fans.
More Northern Italy
Bologna
Venice
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