ABSTRACT
Today Realdus Columbus (Realdo Colombo, c. 1515-1559) is usually only celebrated by historians as a contender for first discoverer of the pulmonary transit of the blood,1 and his role in reviving the anatomical tradition of Herophilus and Erasistratus has been forgotten. Remarkably little is known directly about the biography of Columbus,2 but something can be inferred about his views from the fact of his close friendship with a very famous man, Michelangelo, with whom Columbus planned to write and illustrate a work on anatomy.
