A Teaching Dissection around 1500

This illustration printed in 1513 depicts a typical academic teaching dissection in the time before Vesalius. A lecturer expounds or reads the subject matter from a raised lectern, while in the foreground a skilled surgeon dissects the corpse in step with the text and a professor demonstrates the information.

A Teaching Dissection around 1500, woodcut, artist unknown; source: Johannes Ketham / Petrus de Montagnano (ed.): Fasciculus medicine: Similitudo complexionum et elementorum, Venice 1513, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Signatur: 1405981 Res/2 Med.g. 114 d#Beibd.1, Out of copyright – non commercial re-use.