I serpenti nei preparati anatomici tannizzati di Lodovico Brunetti (Museo Morgagni, Padova, XIX sec.)

Snakes in the tannized anatomical preparations of Lodovico Brunetti (Morgagni Museum, Padua, 19th century). The Morgagni Museum of Human Anatomy of the University of Padua preserves a historical collection of anatomical preparations dating from the second half of the eighteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. Lodovico Brunetti, founder of the Museum of Pathological Anatomy in 1860, invented “tannization,” a preservation method based on the use of tannic acid, capable of maintaining the shape, consistency, and proportions of human tissues almost unaltered. Two tannized preparations include an artistic apparatus incorporating taxidermized snakes. The first depicts the bust of a young woman who committed suicide by drowning, with four snakes arranged on branches in a composition inspired by Dante’s Inferno. This artistic apparatus was intended to conceal facial and thoracic wounds and allow the anatomical study of the face, since suicide was then interpreted as a pathological condition according to the pseudo-scientific theories of phrenology. The second preparation shows two human arms joined in a handshake, described as a symbolic encounter between Morgagni and Hippocrates, united by a snake, symbol of medicine. The tannization was used to better understand pellagrous dermatitis compared with healthy tissue for didactic and diagnostic purposes. The snakes, prepared with cotton stuffing, metal wire, sawdust, glass eyes, and later coated with shellac, were identified despite alterations to the scales and original pattern. Morphological analysis revealed, in the first preparation, one Hierophis viridiflavus, two Natrix tessellata, and one Natrix natrix with “persa” pattern; the second preparation contains a Natrix natrix (not N. helvetica). All species are consistent with the herpetofauna of the Padua area. These two preparations represent a significant example of how apparently distant fields such as pathological anatomy and herpetology may converge in unexpected yet scientifically relevant ways.