Leopoldo Chiari, professor and holder of the chair of Theoretical Surgery and Obstetrics at the Royal University of Naples, 'defined Prince of Surgeons', was born in Ripacandida on 13 October 1790. He was one of the forerunners of modern surgery and inventor of several surgical instruments.

He studied at the seminary in Melfi where, thanks also to the instruction he received from the priest Tobia, he learned Latin so well that he spoke it correctly, while with the help of Canon Jazzi he learned Greek, French and English. In 1812, against his family's wishes, he abandoned his ecclesiastical career and moved to Naples where, thanks to his skills, he entered the famous Collegio Medico Cerusico attached to the Incurabili Hospital.

An eminent figure in medicine and one of the most illustrious sons of Basilicata, he was a meritorious member of the Royal Medical-Surgical Academy, to which he presented the proposal of the bilateral perinal method in lithotomy suitable for large stones, and the invention of the gorgeret. He directed the Anatomo-pathological Cabinet of the "Incurabili" hospital. His main invention was the "Ciappola or susta compressiva for ligating arteries in aneurysms". He invented the inclined plane machine for fracturing the femur with the screw that can be gradually lengthened, the apparatus for fracturing the clavicle and the apparatus for fracturing the patella.

He studied

Sincerely mourned as a citizen and as a clinician, the town of his birth years later, in his memory, placed a plaque on the facade of the Ducal Palace, where these words dictated by Senator Giustino Fortunatowere carved: The Memory of Leopoldo Chiari, honour and glory of the Neapolitan School of Medicine - Ceramics / Naples