Antonio Maria Valsalva

The Valsalva family donated a collection of dried anatomical specimens to be used for educational purposes to the Institute of Sciences founded in 1711.The wear of this material that followed possibly inspired the work of the Bolognese school of wax modeling and the artists Ercole Lelli and Giovanni and Anna Morandi Manzolini.Valsalva was described as a skillful surgeon and excellent physician, a meticulous anatomist with high scientific integrity, and a man of great kindness.De aure humana tractatus published in 1704 contains a description of the Valsalva maneuver and patency test of the auditory tubes.During the 17th century, lacking chemical tests and knowledge of disease transmission mechanisms, he sometimes tasted the fluids he encountered in cadavers in an effort to better characterize them.