Start Date
4-26-2023 9:00 AM
Disciplines
History
Subjects
anatomy, dissection, renaissance
Abstract
Up until the Middle Ages, dissection was largely nonexistent. Gory and unsettling to the modern eye, physicians and anatomists alike agreed that animal dissections and comparative anatomies were more than sufficient to map out the human body. When academic dissections did begin to occur with regularity, they were rigid and formal in nature, relying on inaccurate anatomical texts written over a millennia ago by the Greek physician Galen. Dissection was a visual exercise, conducted primarily in Italian universities to provide a gory illustration for the medical student. The established format for dissection at the beginning of the 16th century was the quodlibetarian model, established 200 years earlier by Italian anatomist Mondino de Liuzzi. It featured three primary roles: the lector, ostensor, and incisor. The lector provided a reading in the traditional latin of a Galenic text, which the ostensor translated into the colloquial language for the incisor, the person physically cutting into the body. A key feature of the quodlibetarian model is that the person guiding the dissection, the lector or ostensor depending on the region, had no physical contact with the corpse. They taught from a distance, remaining as far as possible from the messiness of the body in front of them. The physical demonstration was followed by a disputatio or discussion of the text with reference to the dissection, between the students and faculty present. This model of dissection was highly ritualized to the point of dogma, and enforced Galen’s older anatomical beliefs while stifling exploration and research into the human body. The stagnant quodlibetarian dissection was challenged, and subsequently overturned, with the publishing of Andreas Vesalius’s revolutionary work, De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem, in 1543. The first of it’s kind, the Fabrica featured highly detailed and accurate anatomical drawings, an emphasis on hands on experience, and a critique of the lack of exploration present within a rigid, text based dissection. Following Vesalius’s criticisms, the academic dissection shifted to focus more on the structures and function of the body, and what new knowledge could be deduced. This shift towards evidence based reasoning was cemented into medical teachings through the construction of the oldest permanent anatomical theatre at Padua, Italy in 1595. The dissection would prove to be a valuable tool for physicians in diagnosing and treating the sick. Additionally, the research focused dissection that emerged in the late 16th century modeled the scientific method, and paved the way for scientific discoveries of the Renaissance, Englightenment, and beyond.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/39815
Included in
A Double Edged Blade: Contrasting Theories of Dissection within 16th Century Italy
Up until the Middle Ages, dissection was largely nonexistent. Gory and unsettling to the modern eye, physicians and anatomists alike agreed that animal dissections and comparative anatomies were more than sufficient to map out the human body. When academic dissections did begin to occur with regularity, they were rigid and formal in nature, relying on inaccurate anatomical texts written over a millennia ago by the Greek physician Galen. Dissection was a visual exercise, conducted primarily in Italian universities to provide a gory illustration for the medical student. The established format for dissection at the beginning of the 16th century was the quodlibetarian model, established 200 years earlier by Italian anatomist Mondino de Liuzzi. It featured three primary roles: the lector, ostensor, and incisor. The lector provided a reading in the traditional latin of a Galenic text, which the ostensor translated into the colloquial language for the incisor, the person physically cutting into the body. A key feature of the quodlibetarian model is that the person guiding the dissection, the lector or ostensor depending on the region, had no physical contact with the corpse. They taught from a distance, remaining as far as possible from the messiness of the body in front of them. The physical demonstration was followed by a disputatio or discussion of the text with reference to the dissection, between the students and faculty present. This model of dissection was highly ritualized to the point of dogma, and enforced Galen’s older anatomical beliefs while stifling exploration and research into the human body. The stagnant quodlibetarian dissection was challenged, and subsequently overturned, with the publishing of Andreas Vesalius’s revolutionary work, De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem, in 1543. The first of it’s kind, the Fabrica featured highly detailed and accurate anatomical drawings, an emphasis on hands on experience, and a critique of the lack of exploration present within a rigid, text based dissection. Following Vesalius’s criticisms, the academic dissection shifted to focus more on the structures and function of the body, and what new knowledge could be deduced. This shift towards evidence based reasoning was cemented into medical teachings through the construction of the oldest permanent anatomical theatre at Padua, Italy in 1595. The dissection would prove to be a valuable tool for physicians in diagnosing and treating the sick. Additionally, the research focused dissection that emerged in the late 16th century modeled the scientific method, and paved the way for scientific discoveries of the Renaissance, Englightenment, and beyond.