Anatomy

Human dissection in the Renaissance apparently began in Bologna, with autopsies done in response to legal questions. From performing autopsies, it was a short step to dissecting human cadavers for purposes of instruction. By 1400 the medical faculties in both Bologna and Padua were teaching anatomy through dissection, and university statutes required at least one dissection each year. These had to be done during the winter months, and the work usually was accomplished quickly, before the organs began to decay. Executions of criminals were sometimes scheduled at the convenience of professors of anatomy. Until the 16th century dissections simply showed students the location and physiological characteristics of body parts. Anatomists did not understand bodily functions beyond what was taught in the Galenic corpus, which consisted of Galen’s texts as well as later commentaries. Medieval lore pertaining to certain body parts also prevailed into the Renaissance, such as the idea that the uterus has seven sections. The “warmer” sections on the right were thought to conceive males; the “colder” ones on the left, females; and the central section, hermaphrodites.

The basic presumption of 16th-century anatomy, that observation of nature could produce results superior to those of traditional authorities, assured its success. Galen openly admitted that his own work on human anatomy had been hindered by being limited to study of the anatomy of monkeys. Researchers such as Vesalius spent their career correcting Galen and adding information to his basic account of the human body. Vesalius may have been the first professor of anatomy to perform his own dissections on the human body in a university setting. Vesalius followed in the Greek physician’s footsteps, performing human dissections in the same order on the body as Galen used for monkeys, commencing with the bones and ending with the brain. He did not hesitate to correct Galenic misconceptions that had persisted for centuries, such as the assumption that the liver has five lobes whereas it actually has none. His De humani corpus fabrica (Structure of the human body), published in a folio edition, had numerous full-page illustrations that enhanced the educational value of the book.

Drawn under Vesalius’s supervision, the illustrations were done by a pupil of Titian’s (c. 1489-1576). In addition to his own masterwork, Vesalius contributed to editions of Galen’s texts, notably the book on dissecting arteries and veins.

Building on Vesalius’s discoveries, and often attempting to compete with him, other anatomists focused on specific parts of the body. Comparative anatomy appealed to both Gabriele Falloppio (c. 1523-62) and the papal physician Bartolomeo Eustachio (c. 1520-1574). Falloppio, for whom the fallopian tubes are named, taught anatomy at the famous medical school in the University of Padua. His Observationes anatomice (Anatomical observations, 1561), which included new information about the female reproductive organs, emphasized the functions of various body parts. Eustachio, for whom the eustachian tubes in the ear are named, was the first to publish a correct description of the adrenal glands. Falloppio’s most famous pupil was William Harvey (1578-1657), whose discoveries concerning circulation of the blood belong to the 17th century. During the 16th century, however, Harvey’s predecessors at Padua performed dissections on living animals (vivisection). They learned how blood from the pulmonary artery enters the lungs to take on air before being pumped by the heart throughout the body. This discovery was one of the first steps toward the knowledge that the same blood, continuously refreshed, flowed in a circular manner and was controlled by valves (or “little doors” as they were called).