Anna Morandi Manzolini

Anna Morandi Manzolini was an Italian anatomist, anatomical wax modeler and lecturer in anatomical design at the University of Bologna, born in Bologna in 1714 and dead there in 1774. In 1736 she married Giovanni Manzolini, a professor of anatomy, and worked beside him in a home studio that became an anatomy school and laboratory, dissecting bodies and modelling them in wax. After his death in 1755 she won a small annual allowance from the Bolognese Senate, a post as anatomical demonstrator with access to cadavers, and an appointment as Lecturer in Anatomy in her own name. By her own account she dissected more than 1,000 cadavers, and her dissections led her to find several previously unknown anatomical parts, including the termination of the oblique muscle of the eye. Her wax models, known across Europe as Supellex Manzoliniana, were invited to royal courts and became an archetype of later teaching models.