Matteo Realdo Colombo (c. 1515 – 1559) was an Italian professor of anatomy and a surgeon at the University of Padua between 1544 and 1559.
Early life and education
Matteo Realdo Colombo or Realdus Columbus, was born in Cremona, Lombardy, the son of an apothecary named Antonio Colombo. Although little is known about his early life, it is known he took his undergraduate education in Milan, where he studied philosophy, and he appears to have pursued his father's profession for a short while afterwards. He left the apothecary's life and apprenticed to the surgeon Giovanni Antonio Lonigo, under whom he studied for 7 years. In 1538 he enrolled in the University of Padua where he was noted to be an exceptional student of anatomy. While still a student, he was awarded a Chair of Sophistics at the university. In 1542 he returned briefly to Venice to assist his mentor, Lonigo.
Academic career
Realdo Colombo studied philosophy in Milan, and then he trained to be a surgeon for several years under a Venetian named Giovanni Antonio Plato, also known as Lonigo or Leonicus. By 1538, during the years of Andreas Vesalius, Columbo had arrived at Padua where he studied medicine, anatomy, and he lectured to arts students on sophistics, or logic. Columbo became a close friend of Vesalius and possibly assisted him at a dissection. Vesalius was away in Basel when Columbo was temporarily appointed to teach in his place, and eventually, Colombo received this position more permanently.
In 1544, Colombo went to the University of Pisa and performed many dissections; he was referred to “As Master of Anatomy and Surgery.” Then in 1548, Columbo went to Rome where he taught anatomy at the papal university for about ten years until his death in 1559. While Colombo was in Rome, he took on a project with Michelangelo and became his personal physician and friend. He intended to collaborate with Michelangelo on an illustrated anatomy text to rival De Fabrica but this never came to pass, likely due to Michelangelo's advanced age. Although not much is known about Colombo's biography, his relationship with the more familiar Michelangelo has helped historians better understand his views. He also performed the autopsy on the body of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
Colombo and Vesalius
The relationship between Colombo and Vesalius is not entirely clear. Colombo was appointed to one of the posts in surgery at the University of Padua in 1541 to replace Vesalius while he traveled to Basel in order to supervise the printing of De humani corporis fabrica. It is often thought that Colombo was a student of Vesalius, but this may not have been the case. Regardless, they had become bitter rivals by 1555. While teaching Vesalius' classes in 1543, Colombo pointed out several errors Vesalius made, most notably attributing properties of cows' eyes to the eyes of humans as well as claiming to have discovered a vein in the human body, the existence of which Vesalius had previously denied. Although Vesalius has been much maligned for correcting Galen, Colombo was the one to criticize him for his own mistakes. When Vesalius returned, he was outraged. He publicly ridiculed Colombo, calling him an "Ignoramus" and stating that "what meager knowledge [Colombo] has of anatomy he learned from me" on a number of occasions. Despite Vesalius's claims, it is likely that Colombo was a proper colleague of Vesalius rather than a student. For one thing, Vesalius attributes many of his discoveries in De Fabrica to Colombo who is referred to as a, "very good friend." Vesalius and Colombo were also from very different academic backgrounds. Vesalius was a Galenic expert, trained in Leuven, whereas Colombo began his study of anatomy as a surgeon. Finally, Colombo refers frequently to Lonigo as his teacher of surgery and anatomy, never mentioning Vesalius. While both Colombo and Vesalius were in favor of returning to the anatomical practice of vivisection, as the Alexandrians did, Colombo was the only one to actually do so. This is one of the main reasons as to why Colombo criticized Vesalius. Vesalius criticized Galen while he himself continued to show the anatomy of animals, instead of humans, in his book.