Govert Bidloo

Govert Bidloo, also written Govard Bidloo, was a Dutch Golden Age physician, anatomist, poet and playwright, born in Amsterdam on 12 March 1649 and dying in Leiden on 30 March 1713. Born into a Mennonite family, he trained in surgery, became a student of the anatomist Frederik Ruysch in 1670 and received his medical degree at the University of Franeker in 1682. In 1685 he published the anatomical atlas Anatomia Humani Corporis, illustrated with 105 plates by Gerard de Lairesse, which described papillary ridges on the skin and is counted among the early observations behind fingerprint identification, and he contributed to the discovery of the life cycle of the liver fluke. He became professor of anatomy and medicine at Leiden in 1694, personal physician to William III in 1695 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1696, and he wrote the libretto of the first Dutch opera.