Alessandra Giliani, anatomist (born c. 1307)

Alessandra Giliani is best known as the first woman to be recorded in historical documents as practicing anatomy and pathology. She's reputed to have worked as a prosector, preparing corpses for anatomical study, under the famed anatomist Mondino de' Liuizzi at the University of Bologna. However, all evidence of her work has been either lost or destroyed. Giliani is mentioned in Michele Medici's 1857 history of the Bolognese school of anatomy, but some argue she was invented by the writer Alessandro Macchiavelli in the 18th century. Her purported contributions to anatomy are significant nonetheless.