Carlo Ruini was one of the most noted anatomists

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 of the horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

 of the 16th century.

He was born into a wealthy family in Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and was privately educated in the style of most upper class children. He did not receive special training as a physician or attend the famous university in Bologna. It is unknown if he received special training in art. He appears to have been an avid collector of horses and a rider

Equestrianism

Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...

. His noted work, Anatomia del Cavallo, appeared two months after his death in 1598 and was a milestone in equine veterinary publishing. It is especially known for its well drafted woodcut

Woodcut

Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...

 images of horse anatomy

Horse anatomy

Equine anatomy refers to the gross and microscopic anatomy of horses and other equids, including donkeys, and zebras. While all anatomical features of equids are described in the same terms as for other animals by the International Committee on Veterinary Gross Anatomical Nomenclature in the book...

 which were heavily influenced by human anatomical works published in the decades before, especially Andreas Vesalius' De Fabrica Corporis Humani (Basel, 1543). It was also the first book to focus exclusively on the structure of a species other than man. Numerous editions of the work were published, and its images and text were often plagiarized, including the many errors to be found in the first edition.

Source

• Adapted from public domain text at Carlo Ruini Biography. Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.

External links

• Carlo Ruini: Anatomia del Cavallo, Infermità, et Suoi Rimedii. (In Venetia: Appresso Fioravante Prati, 1618). Selected pages scanned from the original work. Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.