The nervous system in colours: the tabulae pictae of G.F. d'Acquapendente (ca. 1533-1619)

Abstract

The appearance in The Journal of Headache and Pain of this paper on an important document of the history of brain anatomy could seem of marginal interest for a journal devoted to clinical and basic research on headache and pain. On the contrary, the knowledge of the remote development of our understanding of the nervous system can throw light on the development which followed in all the fields of neurologic interest. Modern neurology, and particularly neurophysiopathology and neuropharmacology, would be simply inconceivable without the notion of the neuron and of the synapses, and, before those, of the macroscopic morphology of the nervous system. Therefore, a glimpse into this fascinating moment of the Renaissance in which an outstanding advancement of neurological knowledge took place, documented by a pictorial representation actually a true brain imaging of exceptional beauty and scientific value, will not only please our eyes, but will also stimulate our interest in a better understanding of the present through the path of the past.