Luigi Galvani

Luigi Galvani (1737 - 1798) Photo: German Museum Munich

Luigi Galvani was born in 1737 in Bologna, where he also studied medicine. In 1766, he became the curator and demonstrator for the Anatomy Museum. He obtained a full-time lecturing position in 1768, becoming the assistant to the physician, Galeazzi. From 1782, he worked as a professor at the Istitutio delle Scienze, during which time he occupied himself with the electrical stimulation of muscles and nerves, resulting in his famous discoveries in these fields.

In 1797, he refused to swear allegiance to the Napoleonic Republic, thereby losing his employment and dying, bitter and penniless, in 1798, in Bologna.