A polyvisceral plaque
A polyvisceral plaque Museo Nazionale Etrusco Di Villa Giulia – This Etruscan polyvisceral plaque from Tessennano in Latium in Italy is thought to date from around 400 BCE. Anatomical votives like these were deposited in sanctuaries and temples as offerings to the gods, generally interpreted as a gesture of gratitude for some manner of divine […]
Athenian red-figure krater signed by Euphronios
Athenian red-figure krater signed by Euphronios death of Sarpedon c.500 B.C. Cervetri, Museo Nazionale CeritePhoto: Jaime Ardiles-Arce, CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) – This pot has become particularly famous because it was illegally excavated and then acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The Met. subsequently agreed that its acquisition had been inappropriate and the […]
Illustration accompanying De Arte Physicali et de Cirurgia
Illustration accompanying De Arte Physicali et de Cirurgia, attributed to John Arderne Stockholm, Kungliga Biblioteket X.118, fol. 6v/6r; c. 1430 – While the frontal approach to anatomical illustration exhibited in the Five/Nine-Figure Series and Guido da Vigevano’s work is most dominant, an alternative, sagittal approach emerged in the medieval period and survives in a few […]
Guido da Vigevano’s Anathomia, Figure 8
Guido da Vigevano’s Anathomia, Figure 9 (1345) Guido da Vigevano, Anathomia, 1345CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 – Although human dissection began to be systematically practiced in Italy in the early 14th century, it was not immediately embraced across Europe. This prompted Guido da Vigevano to produce a series of seventeen illustrations included in his Book of Notable […]
Anatomical figures
Anatomical figures (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 13002, fol. 2v; 1165 CE) Photo: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MünchenCC BY-NC-SA 4.0 – These figures offer the earliest example of the so-called Five-Figure Series (Fünfbilderserie), which appears in medical manuscripts from across the medieval world, with Latin, Provençal, Arabic, and Persian versions surviving. The series, which likely originated in Late […]
Illustrations of the uterus
Illustrations of the uterus from Muscio’s epitome of Soranus’ Gynecology Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale MS 3714, fol. 28r; c. 900 CECC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) – These illustrations of various positions of the fetus in the womb accompany Muscio’s Late Antique Latin summary of Soranus’ 2nd century Greek work on gynecology. The 9th/10th century manuscript pictured […]