Fortunio Liceti

Fortunio Liceti (1577 to 1657) was an Italian physician and philosopher, born prematurely at Rapallo near Genoa while his family was moving from Recco; his father, a doctor, made a makeshift incubator that saved him. He studied with his father from 1595 to 1599 and then philosophy and medicine at the University of Bologna under teachers including Giovanni Costeo and Federico Pendasio, and received his doctorate in philosophy and medicine on 23 March 1600. He became lecturer of logic at the University of Pisa in 1600, was awarded a chair in philosophy there in 1605, and took a professorship of philosophy at the University of Padua in 1609. Elected to the Accademia dei Ricovrati in 1619, he taught at Bologna from 1637 to 1645, when Padua invited him back as the first professor of theoretical medicine, the most prestigious chair in medicine, which he held until his death.