Caesarius Magati (Cesare Magati/Liberatus a Scandiano/Liberatus Maggati/Liberatus Magattus, 1579-1647)
Caesarius Magati (Cesare Magati/Liberatus a Scandiano/Liberatus Maggati/Liberatus Magattus, 1579-1647) OFMCap. Italian Capuchin friar and member of the Bologna province. Born in Scandaiano in a well-to-do family of landowners. In 1596, Cesare began medical studies at the university of Bologna, under Giulio Cesare Claudini, Flaminio Rota and Giambattista Cortesi. He finished these initial medical and philosophical studies in late March 1597, and traveled to Rome, to work in the Ospedale S. Maria della Consolazione, to obtain experience in the treatment of illnesses and wounds. There he came to work under the innovative surgeon/doctor Ludovico Settale. After a number of years, he returned to Scandiano, wishing to settle there as a doctor/surgeon, but an encounter with the Viscount Ezio Bentivoglio meant that he was able to travel to Ferrara under the viscount's protection and that he could continue his studies. After an examination, he was accepted into the teaching body of Ferrara university in 1612, and became Professor of surgery, lecturing in this capacity until 1617/18. In 1613, he also became the first surgeon of the Arcispedale Sant'Anna in Ferrara. During these years, Cesare was able to continue experimenting, which also led to the publication, in 1616 of the first edition of his De rara medicatione vulnerum . Early 1618, Cesare became seriously ill, and he decided to retire to the monastic life. He joined the Capuchins on 11 April 1618, making his profession on 11 April 1619, taking up the name Liberato da Scandiano. From Ravenna, he went to Cesena, and later to Bologna. During his life as a Capuchin monk, he continued his medical-academic career and with his publications, in part also to fend off criticism, and his order superiors sent him to several parts of the country to treat important lay and clerical people, among which figured for instance Cardinal Rinaldo d'Este and Alfonso d'Este (son of duke Francesco I d'Este). Cesare/Liberato suffered himself from kidney problems, and he was operated upon in Bologna in the Summer of 1647. The surgeon there found huge kidney stones and other problems, and Cesare died shortly afterwards after much suffering on 9 September 1647 in the friary of Monte Calvario (Auronzo). His medical instruments, which for a considerable time were kept by his Capuchin monastery, eventually ended up in the Istituto Ortopedico of Bologna.
Works
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Consultationes de risanatione a peste [compiled ca. 1629/30, during the plague outburst, in which Cesare/Liberato was also involved as caretaker].
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De rara medicatione vulnerum , 2 Vols. (Venice: Ambrosio & Bartolomeo Dei, 1616/ second edition Venice, 1676/.../1733). A German version appeared in Nuremberg in 1733 with commentaries of later practitioners. This work, in itself quite scholastic in setup, deals with his method of treating various wounds, and descibes in the second book a large number of case studies, as well as purging and suture techniques. Several editions can now be accessed via the digital collections of the University Library of Ghent, Google Books and Archive.org.
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Considerationes medicinae (Bologna, 1637). Invisaged as the first volume of three, but the other two did not appear. This first volume goes in part back to his previous work and defends Cesare's methods against critiscms, for instance those leveled by the German Daniel Sennert in Practica medicinae liber primus , which includes a section called 'De Caesaris Magati et Ludovici Septalii curandi vulnera methodi judicium'.
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