A pioneer of public health, Bernardino Ramazzini

2014 marks the tercentenary of the death of Bernardino Ramazzini, an academic who lived in the Duchy of Modena in the second half of the seventeenth century. This event represents an occasion to remember his thinking, which is remarkably anticipatory of some concepts and trends of modern public health. Although the main merit of Bernardino Ramazzini lies in his contribution to the knowledge of occupational diseases, which granted him the title of father of Occupational Medicine, his work deserves a more detailed and complete consideration. In fact, the systematic approach to the clinical presentation of diseases and their relationship to work, gathered in the famed treatise De Morbis Artificum Diatriba, resulted in little attention being paid to the preventive aspects of his thinking. The free spirit, the tension for searching, the love for the discussion characterize his scientific attitude, which spans from the anticipation of an epidemiologic approach to studies on the impact of air and climate, from workplace surveillance to suggestions for the protection of health, from proposals of primary prevention tools to recommendations of lifestyle behaviour, from educational issues to health promotion. His scientific, cultural and humanitarian stature is evidenced by his overall scientific works revealing the modernity of his thinking in the light of the present trend of public health focusing on the needs of people and promoting occupational health as an integral component of the health concept.