Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla

Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla (1728 to 1800), known in German as Johann Alexander Ritter von Brambilla, was an Italian-born military surgeon who became the leading medical administrator of the Habsburg army. Born at Padua, he studied medicine at Pavia from 1747 to 1752 and entered the military surgical service, where he soon drew the attention of his superiors. In 1764 he became personal surgeon to the later emperor Joseph II, whom he accompanied on journeys, and in 1779 he took over the independent direction of military sanitary affairs in Austria. On his proposal the medical-surgical military academy in Vienna, the Josephinum, was founded in 1785, and he headed it until 1795. With his friend Peter Frank he was a firm advocate of joining medicine and surgery, and as a practical surgeon he invented many new instruments and improved older ones. He also published several medical works. He was ennobled in 1784 and died at Padua in 1800.