PAPILIAN’S ANATOMY - celebrating six decades

Abstract

Victor Papilian was born an artist, during high school he studied music in order to become a violinist in two professional orchestras in Bucharest. Later on he enrolled in the school of medicine, being immediately attracted by anatomy. After graduating, with a briliant dissertation, he became a member of the faculty and continued to teach in his preferred field. His masters, Gh. Marinescu and Victor Babes, proposed him for the position of professor at the newly established Faculty of Medicine of Cluj.

Here he reorganized the department radically, created an anatomy museum and edited the first dissection handbook and the first Romanian anatomy (descriptive and topographic) treatise, both books received with great appreciation. He received the Romanian Academy Prize. His knowledge and skills gained him a well deserved reputation and he created a prestigious school of anatomy. He published over 250 scientific papers in national and international journals, ranging from morphology to functional, pathological and anthropological topics.

He founded the Society of Anthropology, with its own newsletter; he was elected as a member of the French Society of Anatomy. In parallel he had a rich artistic and cultural activity as writer and playwright: he was president of the Transylvanian Writers’ Society, editor of a literary review, director of the Cluj theater and opera, leader of a book club and founder of a symphony orchestra.