The origins
The old room of veterinary dissections and the School of veterinary science were both founded in 1845. Pietro Delprato, Professor of veterinary Medicine, was the first director of the School. He entrusted the anatomist Alessio Lemoigne with anatomic preparations having prevailing didactic aim. The collection was housed in the rooms of San Vitale Garden and in 1857 it numbered 191 preparations of various mammals. In the same year, Professor Alessio Lemoigne was named as the new director of the old room Museum of veterinary dissections.
Professor Lemoigne enlarged the collection with unique specimens and trained students who imitated his ability to dissect animals (one of his students, Professor Clemente Papi, after having moved to Bologna, founded the veterinary anatomical Museum of the University of Bologna in 1882)
Today
The veterinary anatomical Museum is located in the Department of medical-veterinary Sciences, Via del Taglio No.10. It houses 685 anatomical preparations, both normal and teratological, dating back to the 19th and 20th centuries. These preparations include the collection bought from the School of Modena in 1964. On display are natural and artificial specimens prepared with the “dry” technique, items prepared through corrosion after injection with vinyl acetate and some papier-mâché models.
In 2011 the artist Piero Sbarluzzi from Pienza (Siena) donated a stunning plaster cast of a life-sized anatomical model of a horse to the veterinary anatomical Museum. In 2013 the objects in the care of the Museum grew again. In fact, a precious ornithological collection of 165 preparations of birds typical of the Po area was donated by the veterinary surgeon Massimiliano Albertoni
