Italian Physician Johannes Baptista Montanus (1489–1551) – His Activity in Padua, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods, and Scientific Legacy
Using the sources written by Johannes Baptista Montanus (1489–1551), by his students, and the existing historiography, the article aims to determine what role this Italian physician played in the development of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, to what extent he is rightly considered the creator of clinical medicine, who were his mentors, and what were the methods of diagnosis and treatment he employed. Montanus was a professor at the University of Padua, and he has earned an ineffaceable place in the history of this university, where medicine was taught at a high level. At the same time, he worked as the head of St. Francis hospital. He was known for combining theoretical and practical knowledge in teaching at university. This method has become a permanent element of the teaching of medicine in Europe. He discussed the patient’s symptoms, then made a diagnosis, and recommended appropriate therapy directly at the patient’s bed, where the so-called consilia were held. This scheme of diagnostic and therapeutic procedure was named after him the ‘Collegium Montani’ and found many supporters among students who made notes while standing by the patient’s bed. The Consilia were later printed, and thus the treatments recommended and used by Montanus can be analyzed. Walenty Sierpiński of Lublin (also known as Valentinus Lublinus, b. 2nd half of the 16th century– d. before 1600) was among a large group of Montanus’s students. His merits include collecting, organizing and then publishing his master’s lectures. Considered to be Montanus’s most important work, Consultationum medicinalium Centuria prima, was published by Walenty of Lublin in Venice in 1554 (ex officina Erasmiana), and it contains one hundred pieces of medical advice given to one hundred patients. A few years later, a continuation of this work (Consultationum medicinalium Centuria secunda, ed. by Johannes Crato, Venice 1559) was published, containing further one hundred recommendations. Montanus was a promoter of physical examination as a method of obtaining knowledge about the patients’ health. He was regarded as a follower of Galen, Rhazes, and Avicenna and published critical studies on their treatment methods.
Włoski medyk Johannes Baptista Montanus (1489–1551) – jego działalność w Padwie, metody diagnostyczne i terapeutyczne oraz spuścizna naukowa
