<P> Luigi Galvani was born to Domenico and Barbara Caterina Foschi, in Bologna, then part of the Papal States . Domenico was a goldsmith, and Barbara was his fourth wife . His family was not aristocratic, but they could afford to send at least one of their sons to study at a university . At first Galvani wished to enter the church, so he joined a religious institution, Oratorio dei Padri Filippini, at 15 years old . He planned to take religious vows, but his parents persuaded him not to do so . Around 1755, Galvani entered the Faculty of the Arts of the University of Bologna . Galvani attended the medicine course, which lasted four years, and was characterized by its "bookish" teaching . Texts that dominated this course were by Hippocrates, Galen, and Avicenna . </P> <P> Another discipline Galvani learned alongside medicine was surgery . He learned the theory and the practice . This part of his biography is typically overlooked, but it helped with his experiments with animals and helped familiarize Galvani with the manipulation of a living body . </P> <P> In 1759, Galvani graduated with degrees in medicine and philosophy . He applied for a position as a lecturer at the university . Part of this process required him to defend his thesis on 21 June 1761 . In the following year, 1762, he became a permanent anatomist of the university and was appointed honorary lecturer of surgery . That same year he married Lucia Galeazzi, daughter of one of his professors, Gusmano Galeazzi . Galvani moved into the Galeazzi house and helped with his father - in - law's research . When Galeazzi died in 1775, Galvani was appointed professor and lecturer in Galeazzi's place . </P> <P> Galvani moved from the position of lecturer of surgery to theoretical anatomy and obtained an appointment at the Academy of Sciences in 1776 . His new appointment consisted of the practical teaching of anatomy, which was conducted by human dissection and the use of the famous anatomical waxes . </P>

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