[Historical Archives of Italian Nephrology. Gabriele Monasterio (1903-1972) and the School of Pisa].

Gabriele Monasterio (1903-1972), a clinician with numerous medical interests, contributed remarkably to the development of the Italian nephrology of his time. His main scientific contributions were: - Investigation of the causes of normoglycaemic glycosuria. Of this condition he collected, from 1939 on, a large series of patients whom he also investigated - for the first time in the world - with renal biopsy and - thanks to a collaboration with Jean Oliver - the microdissection of the nephron. - Introduction, in the early 1960s, of a low protein diet for the patients with chronic renal failure. This, thanks to the stud-ies published by Monasterio co-workers Quirino Maggiore and Sergio Giovannetti, was largely used in Italy and abroad. - Classification of the nephropathies. This was described in the monograph Le Nefropatie Mediche (1954 and 1970), which had a large impact and today represents a classic of the Italian nephrological literature. Monasterio served remarkably the Italian Society of Nephrology: in 1957 as a member of the founding committee; from 1959 to 1962 and from 1964 to 1968 as President; in 1958, 1962, and 1964 as organizer of the National Congress; from 1962 to his death as the Editor-in-Chief of the official journal of the Society, Minerva Nefrologica. Finally, Monasterio was also a member of the first council of the International Society of Nephrology.