Antonio Musa Brassavola


Antonio Musa Brassavola was an Italian physician and one of the most famous of his time. He studied under Niccolò Leoniceno and Giovanni Manardo. He was the friend and physician of Ercole II, the duke of Este. He was also the consulting physician of Kings Francis I, Charles V, Henry VIII and Popes Paul III, Leo X, Clement VIII and Julius III. He performed the first successful tracheotomy, and published an account of it in 1546. He was the chair of philosophy in Ferrara and also studied botany and medicine. A genus of orchid, called Brassavola, is named after him.

Writings (selection)

Examen omnium simplicium medicamentorum, quorum in officinis usus est. Jean & François Frellon, Lyon, 1537Examen omnium syruporum, 1540 by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
His writings consist of works in the fields of medicine and botany. He also wrote extensively about the physician Galen.