Antonio Pacchioni and Giovanni Fantoni on the Anatomy and Functions of the Human Cerebral Dura Mater

The western anatomical descriptions of the human cerebral meninges still available date back to the mid-fourteenth century. Since that time, numerous anatomists made more or less accurate descriptions of the human meninges and tried to understand their functions. Unfortunately, the belief in animal spirits led to esoteric interpretations which hindered the understanding of these structures up to the early eighteenth century. This paper summarizes the contributions of Antonio Pacchioni and Giovanni Fantoni to the anatomy and functions of the meninges, respectively.