Salviani, Ippolito

1. Dates

Born: Citta di Castello, Umbia, (if it matters, Marini ways Rome) 1514

Died: Rome, 1572

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 58

2. Father

Occupation: Aristocrat

I found only the statement that he came from a patrician family.

No information of the family's financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: Italian

Career: Italian

Death: Italian

4. Education

Schooling: Unknown, M.D.

He studied medicine. There is no information on the university (Hoefer saying that Salviani was at the universities of his country), and no mention of a degree. Nevertheless, given the rest of Salviani's career, it is impossible to believe that he did not have an M.D., and I assume the equivalent of a B.A.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic

Salviani was physician to three Popes.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Medicine, Zoology

He published one medical work, De crisibus ad Galeni censuram (1556). He is better known for his monumental work on ichthyology, Aquatilium animalium historiae, published some time between 1554 and 1558. It describes the fish of the Mediterranean.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Patronage, Academia, Medicine

Secondary: Government

He was personal physician to Julius III, Paul IV, and Cardinal Cervini, who was Pope Marcellus II for a month before he died. Salviani also had many rich clients and became very wealthy.

From 1551 until at least 1568 he was professor of practical medicine at the Sapienza.

In 1565 he was made principal physician of the medical college of Rome.

In 1564 Salviani was named conservatore (registrar) of Rome, an administrative position concerned with the preservation of antiquities.

8. Patronage

Type: Eccesiastic Official

Salviani's most important patron was Cardinal Cervini, who became Pope Marcellus II but died only a month later. Cervini encouraged and supported Salviani's book on fish, and to him it would have been dedicated had he not died. It was dedicated instead to Pope Paul IV.

He was personal physician to Cardinal Cervini and to Popes Julius III and Paul IV. The Vatican gave him many honors: in 1564 the Cardinal in charge sent him to supervise the degree sessions in medicine; he was made principal physician of the medical college of Rome.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

10. Scientific Societies

Membership: Medical College

Sources

1. A. Hirsch, Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Aerzte aller Zeiten und Voelker, 5, 160.
2. Hoefer, Nouvelle biographie générale, (Paris, 1857-66), 43, 221.
3. E.W. Gudger, "The Five Great Naturalists of the Sixteenth Century: Belon, Rondolet, Salviani, Gesner and Aldrovandi," Isis, 22 (1934), 21-40.
4. Gaetano Luigi Marini, Degli archiatri pontifici, 2 vols. (Roma, 1784), 1, 402-5, and 2, 306-7 and 314-17. Prosper Mandosius, Theatrum in quo maximorum christiani orbis pontificum archiatros spectandos exhibit, a separately paginated inclusion at the end of vol. 2 of Marini, (Roma, 1784), pp. 63-4.

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. DSB lists also G. Tiraboschi, Biblioteca modenese, (Modena, 1781- 6), 7, pat. 2, ll9. Something is wrong: the work is only six volumes long, and I have not been able to find a biography of Salviani at its logical place among the S's.

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.