What happens when your body get sick?
The Museum of Pathological Anatomy of the University of Padua tries to answer this question with a journey through the diseases that have characterized man from the past to the present day, with rare and unique specimens, which represent both the living conditions and the pathologies affecting the human being in past centuries and the progress that has been made in the medical field in the prevention and treatment of diseases.
The pathological study, before Giovan Battista Morgagni (1682-1771), was based on the idea that the human body functions were regulated by four humours - blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile - on which all physiological and pathological processes depended. Diseases were a consequence of the "humoral" imbalance. With anatomical dissection, organic alterations of the body began to be observed casually. For the first time, Morgagni associated the patient's symptom with the lesions of the organs observable in the corpse. By systematically studying the anatomical causes of the diseases, he came to formulate a first classification of the pathologies. Today, thanks to increasingly precise tools, it is possible to diagnose pathologies till to the molecular level.
The collections, often represented by unique specimens, show both the living conditions and the pathologies that affected the population between the XVII and XIX century, and the advances that have been made in the medical field in the prevention and treatment of diseases.

Today the Museum has among its activities the preservation of the collection and a new study of the specimens with a multidisciplinary approach, to enrich also the visitor's journey.

Museum Location
Via Aristide Gabelli, 61 – 35121 Padova
Former Institute of Pathological Anatomy
Tel. +39 049 8272269
e-mail: museo.morgagni@unipd.it

Curator: dott. Giovanni Magno
Via Aristide Gabelli, 61 – 35121 Padova
Tel. +39 331 2339518
e-mail: giovanni.magno@unipd.it

Scientific supervisor of the Museum: awaiting appointment by the relevant Departments

Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health - University of Padua
Via Giustiniani, 2 - 35128 Padova
Tel. +39 049 8214393 – Fax +39 049 8218764
e-mail: segreteria.dsctv@unipd.it

Director : prof. Federico Rea

Cardiovascular Pathology Unit
Via A. Gabelli n.61, 35121 Padova
Tel. +39 049 8211330
e-mail: pat.cardiovascolare@aopd.veneto.it

Director: prof. Cristina Basso

Department of Neuroscience
Via Belzoni, 160 - 35121 Padova
Tel. +39 049 827 2025/2036
e-mail: dip.neuroscienze@unipd.it

Director : prof. Edoardo Stellini

Delegate for Department's Medical Collections: prof. Edoardo Midena