There was little or no progress in the knowledge of anatomy between
the death of Mondino in 1327 and the sixteenth century. This appears
the more remarkable when we recall how widespread was the practice
of dissection during the period. In France, at the University of
Montpellier, public dissections were decreed in the year 1377,[121]
and Catalonian Lerida followed suit in 1391.[122] At Bologna, where
dissection had long been customary, it received official recognition
in the University Statutes in 1405,[123] and the same event took place
at Padua in 1429. Public anatomies were instituted at the University
of Prague in 1460, of Paris in 1478, and of Tübingen in 1485.[124]
For these ‘Anatomies’ the bodies of executed criminals were usually
employed, and therefore the number of subjects available varied
greatly in different localities.[125] In addition to these regular
dissections, there was certainly a considerable amount of post-mortem
examination, surreptitious (Plate XXVIII_b_[126]), or even open (Plate
XXIX[127]), long before Benivieni published his memorable list of
cases.[128]
[Illustration: Fig. 1. From the French translation of Bartholomaeus
Anglicus, Lyons, 1482. The first printed picture of dissection.]
[Illustration: MS. fr. 184 fo. 14 r