title: Ludovico Maria Barbieri (1662-1728), the unknown 17th century physician.
abstract: During the 17th century, Ludovico Maria Barbieri from Imola, Italy, discussed the requirement of a gas, seemingly oxygen, for living beings to function. On 6 December 1680, he published his only known work 'Spiritus nitro-aerei operations in microcosmo' in which he reviewed the function of oxygen and the apparatus he used based on the use of experiments rather than just theory. The scarcity of information about his life and work has resulted usually in him being a neglected figure in Italy. In this manuscript we uncover the extant information about his life and reveal that he had been a restless spirit and a great example to the 17th century scientific method.
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Antonis A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Kousoulis
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Athens, Greece iakovosarm@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Iakovos
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Armenis
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Charikleia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Papandreou
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Alexandros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marinelis
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Filio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marineli
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tsoucalas
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Androutsos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D007558:Italy; D010100:Oxygen / Q000266:history* / Q000378:metabolism; D010820:Physicians / Q000266:history*
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Biography; blood circulation; history of medicine; oxygen