I visited one of the most technologically advanced museums in northern Italy. During my voyage to discover the history of medicine, I landed on MUSME: museum of the history of medicine in Padua.
MUSME bridges the past with the modern era by using high-tech 3D-mapping and interactive stations. A perfect mix to encourage young generations to approach this ancient discipline.
Here, I met Nicolò Quareni, a business developer at MUSME, who showed me the ropes of the place.
You walk where ancestors made history
In the 14th century, Padua was already at the cradle of Italian medicine and in 1414, a married couple (Sibilia de’ Cetto and Baldo Bonafari) built San Francesco Grande hospital.
It’s among these rooms and corridors that medical students, for the first time in the world, started to learn clinical medicine through direct contact with patients. Padua paved the way for modern medical educational approach and now, you can be part of all of this, by visiting this museum set upon these breathing ruins.
San Francesco Grande hospital had been operational for more than 400 years, before the bishop of Padua, Nicolò Giustiniani, decided to move the structure to a newer building in 1798: Giustinianeo hospital.
MUSME was inaugurated in June 2015.
Knock knock. Who’s there?
The protagonists of the history of medicine are still alive within these old walls and tell their stories to visitors.
Walk around, don’t feel lost, you are always watched. Meddling eyes are staring at you from a door’s hole. Let yourself be dragged along by curiosity, ring the doorbell and discover what’s hidden behind.
Thus, it will open a virtual door to an ancient character who explains the items exhibited and his/her story.
After crossing a Roman garden, you will enter the first room of your path, where you meet Sibilia de’ Cetto, one of the museum founders.
Put a doctor and a geek together: these rooms are made for “doceeks”!
In 2015, MUSME won the prestigious eContent Award Italy for the best digital content and services in the section of eLearning and Science. In the following days, it took the charts by storm and ranked as 6th, in TripAdvisor, among the 200 things to do in Padova.
So, put together your passion for medicine and technology, and try the many interactive stations to discover how anatomy, physiology, pathology and therapeutics have developed over time.
You don’t need to dismember any human body…or better, you don’t need to do it for real! There is a high-tech dissecting table you can play with. Move around the lens and use the touch-screen to dissect a body. It has never been so funny learning anatomy, hasn't it?
Watch out: sleeping giants around
Up to the stairs, you finally arrive to the modern Vesalian Anatomical Theatre (lit. Teatro Anatomico Vesaliano). Here, in the middle of the room, leans a huge 8 meter-long man.
On his body, thanks to 3D-mapping technology, is projected the history of anatomy and physiology, with a voice speaking to caption the images.
This part of the museum is particularly focused on Andreas Vesalius, a 16th-century Flemish anatomist, physician and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica (lit. On the Fabric of the Human Body).
Born in Brussels, he moved to Italy and became a professor at the University of Padua (Universitas artistarum) until 1500, when he decided to be an imperial physician to the court of Emperor Charles V.
WHAT DO YOU THINK
Have you already visited MUSME? I’m curious to hear your experience and what has hit you most.
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