Antonio Vallisneri (Trassilico, May 3, 1661 – Padua, January 18, 1730) died in Padua. He is known for being one of the first medical researchers to propose abandoning Aristotelian theory in favor of an experimental approach based on the scientific principles advocated by Galileo Galilei. Vallisneri argued that scientific knowledge is acquired through experience and reasoning. This is the principle he followed in his anatomical sections and descriptions of insects. For this reason, his medical career was at the center of a thorny controversy, as many of his contemporaries could not abandon the medieval theories then dominant, even in the face of experimental evidence.
