Ingrassia, Giovanni Filippo

1. Dates

Born: Regalbuto (near Palermo, Sicily), ca. 1510

Died: Palermo, 6 Nov. 1580

Dateinfo: Birth Uncertain

Lifespan: 70

2. Father

Occupation: Nothing Known About The Family

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: Italian

Career: Italian

Death: Italian

4. Education

Schooling: Palermo, Padua, MD.

Apparently started medical studies in Palermo.

Soon transferred to Padua, where he was the student of Vesalius, whose lifetime follower Ingassia became.

M.D., 1537.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic (assumed)

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Primary: Med, Anatomy

Subordinate: Ingassia Is Best Known For Anatomical Studies, Especially Of the bones, which date from the period in Naples. They show his continuing debt to Vesalius.

He published on the plague.

He is called the founder of legal medicine, which in his case included issues such as the validity of testimony taken under torture. And he also contributed to veterinary medicine.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Academia, Government, Medicine

Nothing is known about his activities in the period 1537-44. In view of what followed, and in view of his degree, it is reasonable to assume that he practiced medicine and with success.

1544: appointed professor of anatomy and medicine at the University of Naples. Apparently this appointment was arranged by the Viceroy, Don Garcia di Toledo.

1556: Appointed Protomedicus at Palermo, at the recommendation of the Spanish Viceroy for Sicily, Juan de Vega.

In Sicily Ingrassia became famous for his treatment of Giovanni d'Arragone, Marquis of Terranova, who had been very seriously wounded in a tournament.

As Protomedicus, Ingrassia was able, among other things, partially to control the endemic malaria by draining swamps, and to mitigate the impact of a plague by use of isolation hospitals. He was responsible for the first sanitary code.

Capparoni states that Ingrassia's rapid professional advance was due to his fame as a physician.

8. Patronage

Types: Government Official, Aristrocrat

The viceroys (above)

The Marquis of Terranova.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Correspondence with Vesalius.

Sources

1. G. Pitrè, "Pel IV centenario della nascita di G.F. Ingrassia," Atti della R. Accademia delle scienze mediche in Palermo, (1913-15), 150-67.
2. A. Piraino, "G.F. Ingrassia, l'"ipocrate siciliano" del '500 e la sua opera," La cultura medica moderna, 15 (1936), 270-8.
3. OK Pietro Capparoni, Profili bio-bibliografici di medici e naturalisti celebri italiani dal sec. XV al sec. XVII, 2 vols. (Rome, 1925-28), 1, 42-4. In the copy I have, vol. 1 is from the second ed, (1932) and vol. 2 from the first (1928). I gather that pagination in the two editions is not identical.
4. Dezeimeris, J.E. Ollivier and Raige-Delorme, Dictionnaire historique de la médecine ancienne et moderne, 4 vols. (Paris, 1828-39), 3, 210-1. The names, without first names or initials except for Ollivier, appear this way on volume 1; Dezeimeris alone appears on the remaining volumes.

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. G.G. Perrando, "Festeggiamenti commemorativi," Rivista di storia critica delle scienze mediche e naturali, 1 (1910-12), 75-9.
2. B. Bilancioni, "L'opera medico-legale di Ingrassia," Cesalpino, 11 (1915), 249-71.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.