Paolo Mascagni

Who was Paolo Mascagni?

Paolo Mascagni was an Italian physician, known for his study of human anatomy, in particular for the first complete description of the lymphatic system.

Mascagni was born in Pomarance to Aurelio Mascagni and Elisabetta Burroni, both belonging to old gentry families of Chiusdino. He studied in Siena, where his teacher of anatomy was Pietro Tabarrini, and graduated in philosophy and medicine in 1778. Already in his last year of college he was appointed assistant to Tabarrini, then he became a professor in 1780.

As a young man Mascagni was interested in geological sciences, as evidenced by his several papers on the Lagoni of Siena and Volterra. Once graduated, however, he turned his interest to the human lymphatic system. His many discoveries in this field led him in 1787 to the composition of Vasorum lymphaticorum corporis humani historia et iconographia, a work that soon made him famous throughout Europe. He was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1796, and president of the Accademia dei Fisiocritici in 1798.

During the French occupation of Tuscany he showed himself an enthusiastic jacobin. For this reason he had to spend seven months in prison after the French were expelled.