Positioned in the locations which once were the appartments of the Priors of the Convent Saint Michele in Bosco, in front of the Umberto I Library, there is the study and private library of Professor Vittorio Putti, which he donated to the institute upon his death.

Born in Bologna in 1880, Professor Putti directed the Institute, successor to Professor Alessandro Codivilla, from 1912 to 1940, the year of his death.

An excellent surgeon with great managerial skills, he was interested in the greatest issues of Orthopedics and introduced new methods and original instruments.

Having a personality that stands out in the field of Orthopedics the professor gained great international prestige from the S.I.C.O.T and became an honorary member of the most important foreign societies as well as being the correspondent for the 'Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery', the largest magazine in the specialisation. A grand book-keeper, the professor created in his own study/library a small private museum of the history of medicine.

In his study, everything covered with dense briarwood shelving, he had gathered more than 1.000 antique books of medicine, of which were 17 manuscripts, 66 booklets, 238 16th Century works, which is considered by experts to be one of the most rich and carefully selected in the world, not for the quantity, but for the quality of the texts they contain.

Amongst the rare collection of texts, further diverse editions of Ippocrate, Galeno, Avicenna and other fathers of medicine, you'll find the 'Fasciculus Ketham' (the first medical book with illustratios published in Italy in 1493); the famous first edition of Vesalio (De Humani Corporis Fabrica) 1543; the first book of orthopedics written by Nicholas Andry published in Paris in 1741.
In the Donation room, you can amongst other things, admire the portraits of famous doctors (n.720), a collection of surgical instruments, that were used from Roman times until 1800, autographs of past doctors, as well as other valuable objects bought by Putti from the most famous antique dealers from all over the world. Worth mentioning are two splendid manikins from 1500, which can be dismantled. They were used in Europe for teaching and in China for diagnosing.