Berengario da Carpi was magister of anatomy and surgery at the University o
f Bologna from 1502 to 1527. Eustachio and Falloppia defined him as 'the re
staurator of anatomy'. He was a great surgeon, anatomist and physician of i
llustrious patients including Lorenzo II dei Medici, Giovanni dalle Bande N
ere, Galeazzo Pallavicini, Cardinal Colonna, and Alessandro Soderini. He ha
d strong links to the intellectuals of his time (Forni, Bonamici, Manuzio,
Pomponazzi) as well as with the Medici family. He was respected by the Pope
s Julius II, Leo X and Clement VII. His main contributions are the Isogogae
Breves, De Fractura calvae sive cranei, and the illustrated Commentaria on
the Anatomy of Mondino de Liucci, a textbook utilized for more than 200 ye
ars, which Berengario aimed to restore to its initial text, The Commentaria
constitutes the material for the last part of this paper which concludes w
ith a personal translation of some passages on 'The kidney', where the auth
or gives poignant examples of experimental ingenuity.