Antonio Pacchioni

Antonio Pacchioni was born in Reggia and studied medicine at the University of his native city, obtaining his degree on April 25, 1688. In 1689 he went to Rome to devote himself to anatomy in particular. He was a friend and student of Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694), who lived in Rome from 1691 to 1694. First attending the Santo Spirito Hopital, he was assistant physician at the Ospedale della Conzolazione from May 26, 1690 to June 3, 1693, and then remained for six years in Tivoli as the town doctor.

In 1699 Pacchioni returned to Rome and established a successful medical practice. He later became head physician at the Hospital of San Giovanni in Laterano and then at the Osepedale della Consolazione. In Rome he made the acquaintance of the clinician and botanist Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654-1720), with whom he collaborated in the publication of the anatomical plates of Eustachius in 1714.

Pacchioni's most important works particularly concerned the anatomy and function of the dura mater. His first dissertation on this dates from 1701 on, the most important being Dissertatio epistolaris de glandulis ... (1705) in which he described the arachnoidal granulations that are named after him.

• De durae meningis fabrica et usu disquisito anatomica.
  Romae, D. A. Herculis, 1701.
• Dissertatio epistolaris ad Lucam Schroeckium de glandulis conglobatis durae meningis humanae.
  Rome, Francesco Buagni, 1705. Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1712.
• Disertt. binae ad . . . illustrandis durae meningis ejusque glandularum structurae atque usibus concinnatae.
  Rome, 1713.
• Diss. phys.-anat. de durae meninge humana, novis experimentis . . . auctae et illustratae.
  Rome, 1721. A collected edition of his works appeared in Rome in 1721. 

• Enrico Benassi:
  Carteggi inediti fra il Lancisi, il Pacchioni ed il Morgagni.
  Rivista di storia delle scienze mediche e naturali, 1932, 23: 145-169.
• Maria Bertolani del Rio:
  Antonio Pacchioni 1665-1726.
  In, Luigi Barchi, editor: Medici e naturalisti Reggiani (Reggio nell' Emilia), 1935: 659-667.
• Pietri Capparoni:
  Lo stato di servizio di Antonio Pacchioni all'Ospedale della conzolazione in Roma ed un suo medaglione onorario.
  Rivista di storia delle scienze mediche e naturali. 1914, 2: 241-245.
• Jacopo Chiappelli:
  Notizie intorno alla vita di Antonio Pacchioni da Reggio.
  Raccolta d'opuscoli scientifici e filologici, Biblioteca Modenese, Modene 1783, III: 415-419.