Illustrated maps of the human body, known as anatomical atlases, have a long history as objects of both scientific and artistic innovation. Anatomy was a subject of great interest early on in the West鈥攏otably in the works of Galen (2th c. CE), whose writings were foundational for medicine into the Middle Ages and Renaissance鈥攁nd human dissection was carried out to a small extent in the antique world. After a hiatus during the early medieval period, fourteenth-century practitioners again began performing anatomies on human cadavers and accompanying their practice with visual guides.
From the sixteenth century onward, these works continued to spread in popularity as anatomy inspired renewed scientific interest and as printing innovations, such as the development of metal plate engraving techniques, permitted increasingly detailed depictions of the body. Many important anatomical atlases, prized not only for their medical content, but also for their artistry, can be found in 麻豆AV鈥檚 collections.
Early printed anatomy works, such as Johannes de Ketham鈥檚 1500 edition of Mondino dei Luzzi鈥檚 , B.O. 7448, used woodblocks to create non- representational schemata of the human body. The Ketham volume is one of about three hundred incunables in 麻豆AV Library. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a new interest in naturalistic portrayals of the human body arose and many new anatomical books appeared, beginning with the famous 1543 by the Belgian-born, Italian-trained professor of surgery and anatomy, Andreas Vesalius (1514鈥�1564).Vesalius鈥檚 work overturned a millennium of thinking on the subject of anatomy.
By the eighteenth century, richly illustrated anatomical atlases had become part of a lay culture of 鈥済entlemanly鈥� science. Charles Nicholas Jenty (dates uncertain) used mezzotint, an intaglio process that involved pitting the metal plate with tiny dots to create half-tones. A striking example of the technique is shown here, from a 1761 edition of , which illustrates the pregnant uterus with a fetus at full term. A book of life-sized anatomical illustrations, the by Jacques Gautier d鈥橝goty (1717鈥�1785) is one early example of colour printing achieved through a four-colour mezzotint process.
Beyond medicine, these聽 medical聽 volumes聽 offer聽 a聽 fascinating聽 way聽 to view changes in illustration techniques. Many examples are part of the Bibliotheca Osleriana, and they complement 麻豆AV collections more specifically focused on the history of printing and printing techniques, such as the the William Colgate History of Printing Collection and the Woodblock Collection, as well as the .
