Ferdinando Coletti and his inaugural speech Dell’Università e de’ suoi studi (1879): clinical teaching at the medical faculties in the second half of the 19th century

Abstract

Ferdinando Coletti, Rector at the University of Padua in 1872-1873 and a full professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, delivered his inaugural academic year speech Della Università e de’ suoi studi, which was published in 1880, but little known, at the lecture hall in the University of Padua on November 19th, 1879. This article analyses the inaugural speech, which is divided into six paragraphs: the first two are about the history of Italian universities in comparison with the European ones in general and the other four are devoted to a reflection on medical training and the disciplines into which the contemporary study system of the medical faculties is divided. The nodal point of this analysis is represented by clinical teaching in its various declinations and it becomes the field in the speech where medical-scientific, cultural, pedagogical, political and civil instances find a ground for comparison and synthesis.