Severino was born in Tarsia (Calabria, Italy), of Giovanni Jacopo Severino, a lawyer. He died of plague in 1656 in Naples.

Adept of the atomist views of Democritus, he disregarded Aristotle. He met Tommaso Campanella and corresponded with William Harvey and Thomas Bartholin. He was familiar of the works of scientists of the antiquity like Galen and Lactantius.

He also was the author of a book called The philosophy of chess (La filosofia degli scacchi).

Besides his brilliant career as a surgeon and professor, his works present an ambiguous aspect. He includes mystic speculations, and his work attempts to coincide with his religious beliefs.

• De recondita abscessuum natura, O. Beltrani, Naples, 1632
  • De recondita abscessuum natura libri VIII, p. PP5, at Google Books. Frankfurt, 1643
• Zootomia democritaea, id est anatome generalis totius animantium opificii : libris quinque distincta, quorum seriem sequens facies delineabit. Nuremberg, 1645, in-40, 455 p.
• De efficaci medicina libri tres, p. PR3-IA3, at Google Books, Frankfurt, 1646
• De viperae natura, veneno, medicina demonstrationes et experimenta nova, P. Frambotti, Padua, 1650
• Vipera Pythia (in Latin). Padova: Paolo Frambotto. 1651.
• Trimembris chirurgia, Schönwetter, Frankfort, 1653
• Therapeuta neapolitanus, p. PP13, at Google Books, Naples, 1653 (With a commentary by Thomas Bartholin)
• Quaestiones anatomicae quatuor, Frankfort, 1654
• Antiperipatias. Hoc est adversus Aristoteleos de respiratione piscium diatriba. De piscibus in sicco viventibus commentarius... Phoca illustratus..., 2 vol., Naples, H. C. Cavalli, 1655–1659 (Includes a short biography)
• Synopseos chirurgiae libri sex, E. Weyerstroten, Amsterdam, 1664

Lists of works edit

Severino gave us a list of his printed works and manuscripts, which is made up of nine parts and extends on four pages. It can be found in a 1653 edition Therapeuta Neapolitanus : Nomenclator meletematum et diatribarum Severini, p. PP29, at Google Books.

This list can also be consulted on http://gso.gbv.de/

• Trabucco, Oreste (2018). "SEVERINO, Marco Aurelio". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 92: Semino–Sisto IV (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
• Biography, on the Galileo Project website
• Biography and bibliography (in French), on the Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de Médecine website