An anatomical theatre (Latin: Theatrum Anatomicum) was a specialised building or room, resembling a theatre, used in teaching anatomy at early modern universities. They were typically constructed with a tiered structure surrounding a central table, allowing a larger audience to see the dissection of cadavers more closely than would have been possible in a non-specialized setting.
An anatomical theatre was usually a room of roughly amphitheatrical shape, in the centre of which would stand a table on which the dissection of human or animal bodies took place. Around this table were several circular, elliptic or octagonal tiers with railings, steeply tiered so that observers (typically students) could stand and observe the dissection below, without spectators in the front-most rows blocking their view. It was common to display skeletons in some location within the theatre.
The first anatomical theatre, the Anatomical Theatre of Padua, was built at the University of Padua in 1594, and has been preserved into the modern day. Other early examples include the Theatrum Anatomicum of Leiden University, built in 1596 and reconstructed in 1988, and the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio in Bologna (whose building dates from 1563 and the anatomical theatre from 1637).
The anatomical theatre of the University of Uppsala is well-known, having been completed in 1663 by medical profession and amateur architect Olaus Rudbeck (1630-1702). The theatre is housed in the idiosyncratic cupola constructed on the top of the Gustavianum building, one of the older buildings of the university. Rudbeck had spent time in the Dutch city of Leiden, and the construction of both the anatomical theatre and the botanical garden he founded in Uppsala in 1655 were influenced by his experiences there. The anatomical theatre is now preserved as part of the Gustavianum, now preserved as a museum for the general public under the name Museum Gustavianum.
Thomas Jefferson built an anatomical theatre for the University of Virginia. It was completed in 1827, but demolished in 1939 after the construction of Alderman Library nearby.
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Uppsala is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Uppsala University (UU) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
Andries van Wezel, latinised as Andreas Vesalius, was an anatomist and physician who wrote De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem, what is considered to be one of the most influential books on human anatomy and a major advance over the long-dominant work of Galen. Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy. He was born in Brussels, which was then part of the Habsburg Netherlands. He was a professor at the University of Padua (1537–1542) and later became Imperial physician at the court of Emperor Charles V.
The history of anatomy extends from the earliest examinations of sacrificial victims to the sophisticated analyses of the body performed by modern anatomists and scientists. Written descriptions of human organs and parts can be traced back thousands of years to ancient Egyptian papyri, where attention to the body was necessitated by their highly elaborate burial practices.
Olaus Rudbeck was a Swedish scientist and writer, professor of medicine at Uppsala University, and for several periods rector magnificus of the same university. He was born in Västerås, the son of Bishop Johannes Rudbeckius, who was personal chaplain to King Gustavus Adolphus, and the father of botanist Olof Rudbeck the Younger. Rudbeck is primarily known for his contributions in two fields: human anatomy and linguistics, but he was also accomplished in many other fields including music and botany. He established the first botanical garden in Sweden at Uppsala, called Rudbeck's Garden, but which was renamed a hundred years later for his son's student, the botanist Carl Linnaeus.
Mondino de Luzzi, or de Liuzzi or de Lucci,, also known as Mundinus, was an Italian physician, anatomist and professor of surgery, who lived and worked in Bologna. He is often credited as the restorer of anatomy because he made seminal contributions to the field by reintroducing the practice of public dissection of human cadavers and writing the first modern anatomical text.
Frederik Ruysch was a Dutch botanist and anatomist. He is known for developing techniques for preserving anatomical specimens, which he used to create dioramas or scenes incorporating human parts. His anatomical preparations included over 2,000 anatomical, pathological, zoological, and botanical specimens, which were preserved by either drying or embalming. Ruysch is also known for his proof of valves in the lymphatic system, the vomeronasal organ in snakes, and arteria centralis oculi. He was the first to describe the disease that is today known as Hirschsprung's disease, as well as several pathological conditions, including intracranial teratoma, enchondromatosis, and Majewski syndrome.
The University of Padua is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza, thus, it is the second-oldest university in Italy, as well as the world's fifth-oldest surviving university.
Giovanni Battista Morgagni was an Italian anatomist, generally regarded as the father of modern anatomical pathology, who taught thousands of medical students from many countries during his 56 years as Professor of Anatomy at the University of Padua.
Gaspard Bauhin or Caspar Bauhin, was a Swiss botanist whose Pinax theatri botanici (1623) described thousands of plants and classified them in a manner that draws comparisons to the later binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus. He was a disciple of the famous Italian physician Girolamo Mercuriale and he also worked on human anatomical nomenclature.
Dissection is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause of death in humans. Less extensive dissection of plants and smaller animals preserved in a formaldehyde solution is typically carried out or demonstrated in biology and natural science classes in middle school and high school, while extensive dissections of cadavers of adults and children, both fresh and preserved are carried out by medical students in medical schools as a part of the teaching in subjects such as anatomy, pathology and forensic medicine. Consequently, dissection is typically conducted in a morgue or in an anatomy lab.
Gustavianum is the oldest standing building of Uppsala University. It was built between 1622 and 1625, and was used as the main building of the university between 1778 and 1887. Since 1997, it has been used as the university's museum.
Uppsala University Hospital in Uppsala, Sweden, is a teaching hospital for the Uppsala University Faculty of Medicine and the Nursing School. Uppsala University Hospital is owned and operated by the Uppsala County Council in cooperation with the university and serves, together with Enköping hospital in Enköping, as the primary hospitals for Uppsala County. It also fills the function of a tertiary referral hospital for the Uppsala/Örebro health care region and, for certain specialities, a tertiary referral hospital for the entire country of Sweden.
A university museum is a repository of collections run by a university, typically founded to aid teaching and research within the institution of higher learning. The Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford in England is an early example, originally housed in the building that is now the Museum of the History of Science. A more recent example is the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath, originally constructed as a hotel in 1796 it is now the official museum of the University of Bath.
Johann Vesling was a German anatomist and botanist from Minden, Westphalia. He published a major illustrated work on human anatomy Syntagma Anatomicum (1641).
The Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio is a hall once used for anatomy lectures and displays held at the medical school in Bologna, Italy that used to be located in the Palace of the Archiginnasio, the first unified seat of the University of Bologna. A first anatomical theatre was constructed in 1595, in a different location, but it was replaced by a bigger one built in 1637 in the current location, following the design of the architect Antonio Levanti. The ceiling and the wall decoration were completed from 1647 to 1649 but only the lacunar ceiling dates from this period, with the figure of Apollo, the god of Medicine, in the middle, surrounded by symbolic images of constellations carved in wood.
Domus Anatomica was an anatomical theatre which existed from 1644 until 1728 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Pieter Pauw, was a Dutch botanist and anatomist. He was a student of Hieronymus Fabricius. He was the first Anatomy Professor at University of Leiden.
The Theatrum Anatomicum or Leiden anatomical theatre was an anatomical theatre and cabinet of curiosities of Leiden University that opened in Leiden in the Netherlands in 1594. It was one of the first anatomical theatres in Europe.
The Anatomical Theatre of Padua, Northern Italy, is the first permanent anatomical theatre in the world. Still preserved in the Palazzo del Bo, it was inaugurated in 1595 by Girolamo Fabrici of Acquapendente, according to the project of Paolo Sarpi and Dario Varotari. This theatre constituted the model for the anatomical theatres built during the seventeenth century in the main universities of Europe: all would have been based on the Paduan archetype. It is the symbol of a successful period in the University of Padua's history, and it is considered one of the most important achievements for the study of anatomy during the sixteenth century.
