A Bit on the History of the Insides of Things: Renaissance Anatomy

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Much of human intellectual history has been dedicated to looking inside, seeing the unseen, the stuff underneath, the invisible, the clouded, the inscrutable, the things-behind-something-else.   If you could somehow weigh all of the stuff that we know that is “visible” versus all of the other stuff that is not, I think that the scales would fly over instantly into the world of the unseen. Some of this material though does not have a measure:  for example, numbers are part of the unseen world, ideas made of nothing, points and lines in an imaginary series of planes and dimensions, and so have no mass themselves. Everything that is alive on and in our bodies, on our skin,

in our water and food, and which were all basically unknown until the invention if the microscope, have little weight in and of themselves, but when  you add the whole biota together…well, then you’ve got a whole weighty lot of nothing  Then there’s the stars unseen beyond the six or eight thousand that we can see without a telescope, the rest of the universe waiting, discovered only 400-odd years ago, a very weight affair (and that's not counting the dark matter).  I know that this is sort of a horrible argument, a beery and inelegant way to describe the path of human knowledge, but it strikes a (dis)chord with me.  

One part of this invisible empire is within us—the elements of our bodies.  The Egyptians knew enough to do very simple surgery and to perform a more-complicated mummification ritual, but in general the body remained fairly well undiscovered until relatively recent times.  Publishing findings on those dark explorations was another matter, the first image of a human skeleton not published until 1493 (shown here, the Anathomia ossium corporis humani)--this was the first revelation to the real world of science following a sleepytime of about 8oo years under the very heavy gaze of institutional religions. 

This all changed in 1543 with the publication of the first modern anatomy , Vesalius’s revolutionary De Humani Corporis Fabrica—it proved to work as a template for the display and presentation of anatomical practices and medical rigour for many years to come, solidifying the pursuit of the knowledge of the human body into a discipline.  

Some of the predecessors weren’t so rigorous, as with Jacopo Berengario da Carpi's (ca. 1460-ca. 1530) Isagogae breues, perlucidae ac uberrimae in anatomiam humani corporis, who used several of the same images to illustrate different anatomical aspects.  (In  the  two examples right and below show the same anatomical display--the difference is the rather extraordinary background, and that's it.) An other example is  Charles Estienne’s 1545 De dissectione partium corporis ("On the dissection of the parts of the human body") who simply ran out of scientific steam int the preparation of some of its many (lavish) illustrations—he used existing artwork of torsos and simply performed a printectomy on them, replacing some of the sections of the print with some anatomical detail.  The practice worked well enough, but the overall effort did not make it a landmark in the history of medicine. 

I just wanted to touch very briefly on the rediscovery of the body in the 1490-1535 period.  To that end I've constructed this  table with data  pulled directly from the National Library of Medicine pages for anatomies on the web--all I did was place the records in a table so that they could be listed chronologically.  The numbers at left are clickable and will take you directly to the images of the work at the NLM site.  This is just a sampling of anatomies, though it may prove to be highly useful for folks in the science and the arts. 

Chronological list:

    Author: Mansur ibn Ilyas (fl. ca. 1390).   Title: Tashrih-i badan-i insan. [Anatomy of the Human Body].  Publication Information: [Iran, ca. 1390].            

   Author: Ketham, Johannes de (15th century).   Title: Fasiculo de medicina.   Publication Information:
Venice: Zuane & Gregorio di Gregorii, 1494.                 

      Author: Hundt, Magnus (1449-1519) Title: Antropologium de hominis dignitate...                          Publication Information: Leipzig: Wolfgang Stöckel, 1501.                              

    Author: Berengario da Carpi, Jacopo (ca. 1460-ca. 1530). Title: Isagogae breues, perlucidae ac uberrimae in anatomiam humani corporis.              Publication Information: Bologna: Beneditcus Hector, 1523.        

  

    Author: Dürer, Albrecht (1471-1528).   Title: Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion.                          Publication Information: Nuremberg: Hieronymus Formschneyder, 1528.        

  Author: Gersdorff, Hans von (d. 1529).    Title: Feldtbůch der Wundartzney : newlich getruckt und gebessert.    Publication Information: Strassburg: Hans Schotten zům Thyergarten, [1528].             

   Author: Vesalius, Andreas (1514-1564).  Title: De humani corporis fabrica libri septem.   Publication Information: Basel: Joannes Oporinus, 1543.                  

     Author: Estienne, Charles (ca. 1504-ca. 1564).  Title: De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres.     Simon Colinaeus, 1545.  

     Valverde de Amusco, Juan (ca. 1525-ca. 1588).   Title: Anatomia delcorpo humano.        Publication Information: Rome: Ant. Salamanca and Antonio Lafrery, 1560.                                             

  Author: Porta, Giambattista della (1535-1615).    Title: De humana physiognomonia libri IIII. Publication Information: Vici Aequensis [Vico Equense]: I.Cacchium, 1586.   

   Author: Cousin, Jehan, (1522-1593).  Title: Livre de pourtraiture.     Publication Information: Paris: Jean Leclerc, 1608.             

   Author: Ruini, Carlo (1530-1598). Title: Anatomia del cavallo, infermità, et suoi rimedii.                          Publication Information: Venice: Fioravante Prati, 1618.  

    Author: Spiegel, Adriaan van (1578-1625) and Casseri, Giulio (ca. 1552-1616).    Title: De formato foetu liber singularis.   Publication Information: Padua: Io. Bap. de Martinis & Livius Pasquatus, [1626].         

   Author: Spiegel, Adriaan van (1578-1625) and Casseri, Giulio (ca. 1552-1616).Title: De humani corporis fabrica libri decem.                Publication Information: Venice: Evangelista Deuchino, 1627.       

     Author: Bourdon, Amé (1636 or 1638-1706).   Title: Nouvelles tables anatomiques.      Publication Information: Cambray: Chez l'autheur; Paris: Laurens d'Houry, 1678.      

         Author: Anonymous.  Title: Persian Anatomical Illustrations.     Publication Information: [Iran or Pakistan, ca. 1680-1750].

   Author: Bidloo, Govard (1649 - 1713).     Title: Ontleding des menschelyken lichaams.                          Publication Information: Amsterdam: Weduwe van Joannes van Someren, et al., 1690.     1690

     Author: Genga, Bernardino (1620-1690).     Title: Anatomia per uso et intelligenza
del disegno.  Publication Information: Rome: Domenico de Rossi, 1691.                         

      Author: Cowper, William (1666-1709).   Title: The anatomy of humane bodies.   Publication Information: Oxford: Printed at the Theater, for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, 1698.          1698

     Author: Hua, Shou (1304-1386). Title: Jushikei hakki (Shi si jing fa hui. Japanese & Chinese).           Publication Information: [Tokyo]: Suharaya Heisuke kanko, Kyoho gan [1716].      

       Author: Cheselden, William (1688-1752).  Title: Osteographia, or The anatomy of the bones.     Publication Information: London: [William Bowyer], 1733.                      

       Author: Albinus, Bernhard Seigfried (1697-1770).           Title: Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani.      Publication Information: London: H. Woodfall; J. & P. Knapton, 1749.        

     Author: Gautier d'Agoty, Jacques Fabian (1717-1786).    Title: Anatomie generale des viscères en situation, de grandeur et couleur naturelle, avec l'angeologie, et la nevrologie de chaque partie du corps humain.            Publication Information: [Paris: Gautier?, 1752].     

  Author: Smellie, William (1697-1763).   Title: A sett of anatomical tables... of the practice of midwifery.         Publication Information: London: [s.n.], 1754.     1754

     Author: Kawaguchi, Shinnin (1736-1811).  Title: Kaishi hen      Publication Information: Heian [Kyoto]: Hakubundō Tanaka Ichibe, Meiwa 9 [1772].            

     Author: Hunter, William (1718-1783).      Title: Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata = The anatomy of the human gravid uterus exhibited in figures.  Publication Information: Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1774.      

    Author: Kulmus, Johann Adam (1689-1745).   Title: Kaitai shinsho.   Publication Information: Tōbu [
Tokyo]: Suharaya Ichibē shi, An'ei 3 [1774].          

      Author: Gamelin, Jacques (1738-1803).Title: Nouveau receuil d'ostéologie et de myologie. Publication Information: Toulouse: J. F. Desclassan, 1779.    

   Author: Eustachi, Bartholomeo (d. 1574).  Title: Tabulae anatomicae.     Publication Information:
Rome: P. Junchus, 1783.      

           Author: Anonymous.         Title: [Treatise on physiognomy].    Publication Information: [Netherlands?, ca. 1790].             

   Author: Sarlandière, Jean-Baptiste (1787-1838).    Title: Anatomie méthodique... Publication Information: Paris: Chez les libraires de médecine, et chez l'auteur, 1829.

  Author: Clorion. Title: [Anatomical illustrations].  Publication Information: New Harmony, 1830.                

    Author: Vimont, Joseph (1795-1857).   Title: Traité de phrénologie humaine et comparée.     Publication Information: Paris: J. B. Baillière, 1832-35.                       

      Author: Quain, Richard (1800-1887). Title: The anatomy of the arteries of the human body, with its applications to pathology and operative surgery.Publication Information: London: Printed for Taylor and Walton, 1844.             

   Author: Braune, Wilhelm (1831-1892) Title: Topographisch-anatomischer Atlas : nach Durchschnitten an gefrornen Cadavern.  Publication Information: Leipzig: Verlag von Veit & Comp., 1867-1872.          

     Author: Laskowski, Sigismond (b. 1841).   Title: Anatomie normale du corps humain: atlas iconographique de XVI planches.       Publication Information: [Genève: Braun, 1894].        

     Author: Bouglé, Julien (1868-1903).  Title: Le corpus humain et grandeur naturelle: planches coloriées et superposées, avec texte explicatif. Publication Information: Paris: J. B. Baillière et fils, 1899.