Ruggero Ferdinando Antonio Guiseppe Vincenzo Oddi

Long forgotten in his motherland but for a single discovery-a small circular tissue whose workings are as mysterious as its discoverer-a brilliant anatomist and physiologist, Oddi, gained his fame at the age of 23 years with his identification of the sphincter that would later be named in his honor. In 1984 Ruggero Oddi, was celebrated and revered in his native town of Perugia with a monument. Ruggero Oddi lived a tumultuous life, full of grief and tragedy, only to culminate in a lonely death while exiled in a foreign land. We now review the life of this contributor to modern anatomy.