Representing the Body. From variety to the perfection of convention: the anatomical plates of the Leonetto Comparini Anatomy Museum, University of Siena

Abstract

The history of Medicine has been passed down to us through the texts of Anatomy without images from the most ancient periods. Only in the 15th century was Mondino’s work enriched with drawings that went on to explain the dissection methods that the great Bolognese anatomist had included in his book published in 1316. But it was in the 16th century that anatomical drawings assumed extraordinary importance when Andrea Vesalio recognized their extraordinary function in helping to understand the texts and make them accessible to an ever-wider audience interested in the study of Anatomy. The authors, in tracing the highest examples of the history of anatomical iconography for educational use, present the case of the collection of about 600 anatomical plates preserved in the Leonetto Comparini Anatomy Museum of the University of Siena: tables that were made specifically for educational use and that have been regularly used for the teaching of Anatomy throughout the 20th century.