Johannes Baptista Montanus (b. 1498 in Verona

Verona

Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...

, d. May 6, 1551 in Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

) is the Latinized

Latinisation (literature)

Latinisation is the practice of rendering a non-Latin name in a Latin style. It is commonly met with for historical personal names, with toponyms, or for the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. It goes further than Romanisation, which is the writing of a word in the Latin alphabet...

 name of Giovanni Battista Monte, or Gian Battista da Monte, one of the leading humanist

Renaissance humanism

Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...

 physicians of Italy. Montanus promoted the revival of Greek medical texts and practice, producing revisions of Galen

Galen

Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...

 as well as of Islamic-influenced medical texts by Rhazes and Avicenna

Avicenna

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...

. He was himself a medical writer and was regarded as a second Galen.

Montanus was a friend of the pioneering anatomist

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...

 Andreas Vesalius. He introduced autopsies as a means of acquiring anatomical data, and in 1594/5 established the first permanent anatomical theatre, where Vesalius, Gabriele Falloppio

Gabriele Falloppio

Gabriele Falloppio , often known by his Latin name Fallopius, was one of the most important anatomists and physicians of the sixteenth century....

, Hieronymus Fabricius

Hieronymus Fabricius

Hieronymus Fabricius or Girolamo Fabrizio or by his Latin name Fabricus ab Aquapendende also Girolamo Fabrizi d'Acquapendente was a pioneering anatomist and surgeon known in medical science as "The Father of Embryology."...

 and others carried out studies.

Montanus became a professor of practical medicine at Ferrara

Ferrara

Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...

 and at the University of Padua

University of Padua

The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...

 in 1539. His greatest innovation was to introduce clinical medicine into the curriculum as a way to integrate medical theory and practice. His students included John Caius

John Caius

John Caius , also known as Johannes Caius, was an English physician, and second founder of the present Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.-Early years:...

, one of the most eminent physicians of the 16th century and a court physician of Edward VI, and Valentinus Lublinus

Valentinus Lublinus

Valentinus Lublinus, also known as Walenty Lublin, was a 16th-century Polish physician and editor of medical texts. He was a student of Johannes Baptista Montanus at the University of Padua, and collected, edited and published several volumes of his teacher's lectures two years after Montanus's death...

. Lublinus was one of several former students who drew attention to their teacher's method by publishing his lectures and notes after his death. The new field of clinical medicine then began to attract students from northern Europe.

In 1545, he helped establish the first botanical garden in Padua.

Selected works

• De excrementis.
• De uterinis affectibus. 1556.
• In nonum librum Rhasis ad R[egem] Almansorem
  Al-Mansur
  Al-Mansur, Almanzor or Abu Ja'far Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mansur was the second Abbasid Caliph from 136 AH to 158 AH .-Biography:...
  
   lectiones restitutae a Ioanne Cratone
  Johannes Crato von Krafftheim
  Johannes Crato von Krafftheim was a German humanist and court physician to three Holy Roman emperors.- Origins and education :...
  
  . Basel 1562.
• Medicina universa ("Comprehensive Medicine"), three volumes compiled from his lectures and notes. Frankfurt 1587.