The man who would rise to become physician extraordinary to the King
of England originated as a Kentish boy who was endlessly curious about
the spiders, horses, dogs, pigs, and hens on the family farmstead. Like
William Shakespeare (just fourteen years older), Harvey was educated at
grammar school, well versed in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. When Harvey
arrived in Padua, he easily absorbed the information in Latin, the lingua
franca of sophisticated scholars. Harvey’s timing as a new medical student
in Padua was propitious, with 16th century forefathers Vesalius, Falloppio,
and Eustachi having established Padua as the greatest medical center of
learning in the world.
Padua also held the greatest advantage for international students, with
the establishment of “Nations,” in which the French, English, German, and
English expatriates associated with each other within codified structures
and leadership. Within months of his arrival, Harvey won election as the
“councilor” of the English Nation, which afforded him special privileges,
including a front row seat at anatomical dissections in the newly
constructed anatomy theater at the Palazzo del Bo, Europe’s first (and still,
oldest) anatomy theater.
Standing on the dark granite cobblestones in front of the Palazzo del Bo,
the oldest building at the University of Padua, one cannot immediately
decipher what distinguishes this edifice among the other medieval and
Renaissance structures that surround it. The five-hundred-year-old
Palazzo, a rosé-hued, three-story stone building with a center courtyard,
has colonnaded arches and stone-framed windows, behind which lie some
of the most famous classrooms in the world. In Padua, Copernicus argued
for heliocentrism, Galileo lectured about the orbits of the planets, and
Vesalius reinvented the scholarship of anatomy. The lecture halls,
examination rooms, and anatomic theater are centuries old, and were the
staging grounds for some of medicine’s greatest innovators.
Entering the courtyard and following the Italian signs that guide
visitors to the entrance of the steward’s office, I am disappointed to find it
closed for construction. I check my email on my phone, confirming my
appointment for a private tour of this historic venue. The police officer
turns me away in broken English, telling me my presence is not permitted.
I try to tell him that I have a prearranged engagement, but to no avail—I