The biography of outstanding physician and anatomist Costanzo Varolio (1543—1575) is considered. His contribution to the study of the structure of the nervous system is characterized. The authors have translated fragments of his works concerning a method of brain dissection and pons later named in his honor. They point out that eponym «pons Varolii» had been coined by Thomas Bartholin in his «Historiarum anatomicarum rariorum centuria» in 1654.