Portrait of Santorio Santorio — (Graphic elaboration by Venipedia/Bazzmann based on the engraving by Giacomo Piccini, 1660)

Portrait of Santorio Santorio — (Graphic elaboration by Venipedia/Bazzmann based on the engraving by Giacomo Piccini, 1660)

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Santorio, born in Capodistria in 1561, was a pioneer of iatromechanics, developing a quantitative approach to medicine. Known for inventing instruments such as the pulsilogium (for measuring the heartbeat) and the medical thermometer, his seminal work De statica medicina demonstrated that changes in body weight are an indicator of physiological changes. Santorio studied humanities in Venice, became friends with the future doge Nicolò Contarini, and taught in Padua, influencing modern medicine. In the early 17th century, he moved permanently to Venice, where he died in 1636.

He was born in Capodistria on 29 March 1561 to Antonio, of Friulian origin, and Elisabetta Cordonia, from Capodistria. Antonio, the father, served the Serenissima as sopramassaro delle munizioni and at an early age Santorio moved to the lagoon city together with his brother Isidoro, while his sisters Piana and Franceschina remained in Capodistria where they married.In Venice he was able to study the humanities thanks to the support of the Morisini patricians, friends of the Sartorio family, and in 1575 he studied philosophy with Giacomo Zabarella and medicine with Bernardino Pat

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