Francesco Antonio Canaveri (1753-1836) was an Italian Physician and Professor of Anatomy. He was a tenacious opponent of the doctrines of Cullen and Brown, who espoused the so-called Brunonian theory of medicine, which regarded disorders as caused by either defective or excessive excitation.^[1]

Francesco Canaveri was born in Mondovì, son of a distinguished family of Piedmontese patricians. After finishing high school, he began his studies in Rhetoric and Philosophy in the University of Turin.^[2] In 1788, he was elected to the post of prefect in the Turin School of Medicine

In 1796 Canaveri became professor of Materia Medica and anatomy of the University of Turin.^[3] In 1799 during the Napoleonic occupation of Piedmont, Canaveri had been chosen to lead medical schools beyond the Alps. Between 1800-1814 he was appointed Inspector of the medical schools.^[4]

In 1807, Canaveri sent to Padua a work on physiological observations, and for the year 1815, another paper on the usefulness of physiological notions for pathology and practical medicine.^[5] He also had made some writings in medical neurology. He was the author of several popular works in this matter, including De vitalitatis oeconomia (1801),^[6] Saggio sopra il dolore: dissertazione (1803),^[7] Analyse et réfutation des élémens de médecine du D. J. Brown (1805) and Neuronomia, (1836) published after his death.^[8]

Francesco Canaveri maintained friendship ties with notable personalities of science such as Francesco Rossi^[9] and Giovanni Francesco Cigna, members of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino.^[10] He died in February, 1836 in Turin at the age of 82 years.^[11]