The problems relating to patients with nose amputations and the related surgical reconstruction techniques were already addressed by Celsus (1st century AD) in the seventh book of “De re medica”. However, it was Gaspare Tagliacozzi (1546-1599), perfecting a method of remaking amputated noses already practiced by Calabrian surgeons, who transformed rhinoplasty from an empirical practice into a branch of surgery. The surgery involved: 1) the dissection of a flap of skin from the flexor region of the forearm; 2) the section of the distal pedicle, which was then sutured to the missing part of the nose for 20 days. The pedunculated flap adhering to the nose was cut from the arm after another two weeks. The tip of the nose, the columella and the nostrils were then modeled. Tagliacozzi's technique remained in use until the mid-twentieth century.