ANATOMY IN THE MIDDLE AGES-AD. 400 TO 1400 67 



much to do with its rise and they favored Hippocratic methods 

 of teaching. The University of Montpellier was not far behind 

 Bologna in respect to pioneering in human dissection. When 

 Henry de Mondeville (1260-1320) returned to Montpellier, after 

 attending classes at Bologna, there was no statute permitting re- 

 stricted anatomies. He is said to have utilized a human skull for 

 teaching purposes; otherwise, he used charts. His surgical man- 

 uscript published in 1314 contained crude, anatomical pictures. 

 It was in 1340 that the first ordinance was passed in France per- 

 mitting human dissection once every five years, the time interval 

 being debatable, for two years is also mentioned. The chronologi- 

 cal gap was evidently lowered in 1376 by another decree allow- 

 ing an annual dissection of a criminal. Apparently, the proper 

 authorities did not make delivery of such so the faculty, in 1377, 

 requested that this be done. Dissections are reported being per- 

 formed there in 1377, 1396 and 1446 (Cooper, '30). 



4. General Information on Other Universities 



There is historical evidence that dissection was legalized 

 in certain other cities of Italy, Spain, and Germany during the 

 14th Century, but little is known as to how much was performed. 

 At the most, it is possible that very few humans were anatomized 

 because of the standards involved and the general reaction against 

 it. Three factors stood out: one was that the subjects in each 

 country had to be those of executed criminals, which attached a 

 stigma to the act; the second was that the proceedings had to be 

 conducted in public, which publicized the event; the third was 

 that few specimens were turned over to the proper authorities, 

 namely the professors of anatomy or surgery. In the last respect, 

 the most generous law permitted one subject per annum; the 

 least, one every five years. 



The following list consists of other cities in Europe and the 

 date human dissection was started in the 14th Century: Venice, 

 1308; Prague, 1347; Naples 1365; Florence, 1387; and Lerida, 

 1395. 



