THE AGE-OLD SPIRIT OF NEPHROLOGY FROM THE OLDEST UNIVERSITY IN THE WORLD

The University of Bologna began teaching in 1088, and the Faculty of M edicine was granted the same rights as lawyers in 1288, largely due to the reputation and teaching skills of Taddeo Alderotti. Among the oth er famous names associated through the ages with the Bologna School of Medicine are Malpighi, Valsalva and Murri. From the earliest times in Bologna, nephrologists attempted to show an interaction of the kidney with the outer environment (astronomy and astrology) and with other o rgans (anatomy) and an integration of the sophisticated structures wit hin the kidney itself (microscopy). At the turn of the 19th century, t he biochemical frontier was reached, and a new teaching methodology em phasizing careful consideration of all possible differential diagnoses was developed.