Morandi was born in 1714 in Bologna, Italy. She was raised in a traditional home where marriage, children, and a domestic lifestyle were natural choices for women. Women were expected to be wives, raise their children and essentially tend to their husbands needs and wants. This wasn’t the case for Anna Morandi. Instead she became a wife and had children, but instead of tending to her husband, she worked side by side with him. In 1736, Morandi married her childhood sweetheart, Giovanni Manzolini, a professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna. She was 20, and he was 24 years old. After five years of marriage, she became the mother of six children.

Women were expected to be wives, raise their children and essentially tend to their husbands needs and wants. This wasn’t the case for Anna Morandi. Instead she became a wife and had children, but instead of tending to her husband, she worked side by side with him. In 1755, her husband died, and she was left with little means of support. She received tempting offers from other universities, but she preferred to remain in her native city, Bologna.

Knowledge of Morandi’s talent in molding anatomical models spread throughout Europe, and she was invited to the court of Catherine II of Russia as well as other royal courts. It became a major turning point in her life. In order to learn anatomy, Morandi had to dissect cadavers, which was extremely difficult for her, but she overcame her fears. Giovanni Manzolini was so encouraged by her and her accomplishments that he again returned to his work. They were recognized as a team by many artists, intellectuals, and anatomists in Europe. When Morandi’s husband became ill with tuberculosis, she received special permission to lecture in his place. After her husband’s death in 1755, Morandi was appointed Lecturer in Anatomy in her own name by the Institute of Bologna.

Morandi partnered with her husband, and then surpassed him in skill and reputation after his death in 1755 in the scientific knowledge of human anatomy as well as the accurate demonstration of anatomy in wax sculpture. During her famed household lectures on anatomy given before medical practitioners and grand tourists alike, she imparted expert knowledge of empirical anatomy derived from the dissection of more than 1,000 cadavers by her own account, as well as of anatomical discoveries made both by the couple and Morandi alone. She clearly demonstrated, both theoretically and practically, the wonderful structure of the human body.

Morandi died in the city in 1774, at the age of 60.

Morandi’s collection of wax models was known throughout Europe as Supellex Manzoliniana, and was eagerly sought after to aid in the study of anatomy. Her work became the archetype of such models as the Vassourie collection and the creations of Dr. Auzoux made from papier mache, which were the forerunners of those used in today’s schools and colleges. A collection of her models was acquired by the Medical Institute of Bologna and is housed at the Institute of Science in Bologna. Her wax self-portrait showing her dissecting a human brain was placed from 1776 in the anatomy museum of the Institute of Sciences in Palazzo Poggi alongside her wax bust of her husband. They were returned to the Poggi in 2000.