Michelangelo Bergonzoni

Born September 6, 1748 in Bologna, died March 5, 1819 in Warsaw. He came from an Italian family, having no previous contacts with Poland and Poles. He completed all his early education in his hometown. In 1772 he received the title of Doctor of Medicine and philosophy.  For the next three years he practiced medicine in Milan. Homesick, he tried to become a lecturer at the University of Bologna, but never got to doing it. His requests were ignored, which was the reason he became resentful, which may have influenced his later decision to leave.

He went to Poland in 1775 at the invitation of the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Garampi. He then was employed at the court of Prince Józef Sanguszko, grand marshal of the Crown, where he served for 5 years. Następnie otrzymał dekret królewski o „doktoracie w medycynie”.

In 1780 he moved to Lublin and worked as a promedicine specialist. After 2 years of living in this city, he published a 50-page work – Lublin podług ustawy medyki uważany (Lublin in the eye of the law of Medicine)… He focused on the sanitary state of the city and the health of its inhabitants, assessing the location of buildings and any other factors that may ultimately affect the deterioration of human health. Through his work he attracted the attention of the city authorities, which resulted in the his nomination as a sanitary councilor and the appointment of a court Councilor at the Court of Stanisław August. 

In 1787 he left Lublin, to work as a doctor at the court of Hetman Severin Rzewuski. At the same time, he received the aforementioned title of counselor at the court of the King. In 1790 he settled in Warsaw, where he received the rank of Staff-Physician of the crown Army. He also began working in a surgical School. In 1791 he was ennobled, receiving the coat of arms „Bergonzoni”.

In 1794, he resigned from military service, to which he returned only in 1812, in the Duchy of Warsaw. At that time he was a promedicine practitioner. In the same year, he joined the General Confederation of the Kingdom of Poland.

From 1804 he became a member of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Sciences, and from 1814 he joined the Warsaw Charity Society. In the second case, he dealt with organizing smallpox vaccine campaigns for the poor.

He is considered a pioneer of the introduction of vaccines in the Republic, which is worth mentioning-he promoted them twenty years before Edward Jenner, widely regarded today as the discoverer of the smallpox vaccine.

Michelangelo Bergonzoni died on 5 March 1819 and was buried in the Powązki cemetery.