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Aim: To confirm that the sixteenth century surgeon-anatomist, Jacopo Berengario da Carpi, used a woman who died of a ruptured uterus as a model for a woodcut of female genital anatomy, and that the presentation was based on the cloak in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam after visiting the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican whilst he was in Rome., Method: Analysis of the woodcut for evidence of a uterus at term, and comparison with the shape of the cloak in the Creation of Adam , coupled with Berengario's own description., Results: The size of the uterus is that in the 38th to 40th week of pregnancy, further supported by striations of the endometrial surface, rather than the smooth surface of the non-gravid. By rotating the woman's image 90° counterclockwise, the outline of the woman's cloak becomes almost perfectly superimposed over God's cloak., Conclusion: In the woodcut, the open belly of the model shows typical features of the full-term uterus. The use of God's cloak softens the features. At the same time, it exemplifies the creative power of God and describes the birth of humanity in both theological and physiological ways. Intertwining art, religion and anatomy, Michelangelo and Berengario allow scholars to appreciate the concepts of divinity and humanity at multiple levels.

The year 2022 will mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Giuseppe Mazzini, the spiritual father of the Italian Republic and one of the best political minds of the nineteenth century. In this review, we revisit the events surrounding Mazzini's death, based on a report published in 1872 by Dr. Giovanni Rossini, the Italian physician who cared for him during his last days in Pisa. The detailed clinical information provided by Dr. Rossini suggests quite strongly that Mazzini's most likely cause of death was gastroesophageal cancer complicated by aspiration pneumonia. Surprisingly, there are no published medline entries concerning the cause of death of this Italian patriot and revolutionary, who spent 41 years of his life in exile, was admired by Dickens, Meredith and Carlyle, and is considered not only one of the founding fathers of Italy but also one of the visionaries behind the idea of a United Europe., (© 2021. Società Italiana di Medicina Interna (SIMI).)

President John F. Kennedy (JFK) had a complex medical history that is now thought to be an autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 2 with Addison's disease and hypothyroidism. He also had gastrointestinal symptoms from adolescence, which now fit well with coeliac disease. In addition, he had a chronic back problem, which contributed to a chronic pain syndrome. This review looks at JFK's various diseases and focusses on the history of coeliac disease, as well as its presentation. JFK's Irish ancestry supports the hypothesis of a coeliac disease started early in his youth., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Overweight, workaholic, and a caffeine abuser, Honoré de Balzac lived a life of excess. He prematurely died at the age of 51 owing to gangrene associated with congestive heart failure. Textual sources allow us to take a glimpse into his last 3 months of life. Because of ventricular hypertrophy, Balzac's respiratory conditions were appalling and he developed severe leg edemas and possibly stasis dermatitis. Here we report on Balzac's demise and provide first evidence of a pioneering medical treatment applied to save his life: the use of a trocar to drain leg edema. Based on the empirical observation of the benefits derived from an accidental leg drainage, Balzac's physicians anticipated the invention of the "Southey tube", whose use evolved in the following century to treat obstinate edema in heart failure patients. Unfortunately, following the daily maneuvers for trocar insertion and in the absence of adequate disinfection measures and antibiotics, bacteria infected the open wound and gave rise to the gangrene, which caused the writer to die within 24 hours of its onset., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)