The origins
The Cabinet of Zootomy was founded together with the School of Veterinary Medicine in 1845. The School’s first director, Professor Pietro Del Prato, entrusts the task of setting up anatomical preparations, for teaching purposes, to anatomist Dr. Alessio Lemoigne. The collection is placed in the premises of the San Vitale Garden.
In 1857, the Zootomics Cabinet has as many as 191 preparations of various mammals, and the same year Prof. Lemoigne is appointed director of the Zootomics Cabinet. Prof. Lemoigne enriched the collection with unique pieces and trained students who emulated him in the art of dissection; one of his students, Prof. Clemente Papi, moved to Bologna and founded the Anatomical Veterinary Museum of the University of Bologna in 1882.
The present
The Veterinary Anatomical Collection is housed today in the Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences at 10 Taglio Street.
It holds, including the collection acquired in 1964 by the School of Modena, 694 anatomical, normal and teratological preparations produced in the 19th and 20th centuries. The display consists of natural and artificial dry preparations, pieces set up by corrosion after injection with vinyl acetate, and papier-mâché models. In 2013, the Collection was enriched by a donation from veterinary doctor Massimiliano Albertoni with a valuable naturalistic collection, mainly ornithological, consisting of 120 preparations of birds from the Po River territories, joined by 45 preparations (of reptiles and especially mammals).
