Giulio Cesare Casseri (1552 – 8 March 1616), also written asGiulio Casser,Giulio Casserio of Piacenza or Latinized asIulius Casserius Placentinus,Giulio Casserio, was an Italian anatomist. He is best known for the booksTabulae anatomicae (1627)andDe Vocis Auditusque Organis (c. 1600). He was the first to describe theCircle of Willis.
Born inPiacenza, Casseri moved toPadua as a young man, where he became an assistant to anatomistHieronymus Fabricius. He studied at the School of Medicine of the University, where his teachers includedGirolamo Mercuriale, who was Chair of Clinical Medicine in Padua from 1580-87. Casseri fell out with Fabricius, initially it seems as Fabricius resented the enthusiasm of the students for Casseri's teaching when Fabricius was ill.[1][2][3]
He wroteTabulae anatomicae, probably the most important anatomical treatise in the seventeenth century, published in Venice, in 1627. The book contained 97 copper-engraved pictures, by Francesco Valesio, inspired byOdoardo Fialetti, Italian painter and former student atTitian's school. The pictures in this book were copied in the works of his successor at Padua,Adriaan van den Spiegel (1578–1625). HisDe vocis auditusque organis historia anatomica was published in 1600-1 inFerrara. In this work, he was the first to illustrate the use of tymbals in the production of sound bycicadas.[4] He died in Padua.[1]
The historian of comparative anatomy,F. J. Cole considered Casserius as one of the oldest exponents of comparative anatomy by examining and illustrating anatomical analogues of man in other animals.[5] He described the arterial circle of the brain 37 years before the work of Thomas Willis after whom is named the Circle of Willis.[6][7][8]
^Wessel, Andreas (2013). "Historical Sketch. Casserius and the secret of the cicada's voice".Dtsch. Entomol. Z.60 (2):135–146.doi:10.1002/mmnd.201300019 (inactive 1 November 2024).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
^Cole, F. J. (1944).A history of comparative anatomy from Aristotle to the eighteenth century. London: Macmillan.
