Realdo Colombo - Colombo and Falloppio

Colombo and Falloppio

Colombo published his only work, De Re Anatomica, in 1559 shortly before his death. Many of the contributions made in De Re Anatomica overlapped the discoveries of Gabriel Falloppio, most notably their claims of having discovered the clitoris. Falloppio published his own book, Observationes Anatomicae, in 1561 and claimed that he had written the work four years prior. This is unlikely as Falloppio's work contains several thinly veiled references to De Re Anatomica. In 1574 Leone Giovanni Battista Carcano (1536–1606), a student of Falloppio, formally charged Colombo of plagiarism, although since Colombo had been dead for over a decade nothing came of these charges.