ANATOMY DURING THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE 79 



the body. In the warm climate of Italy, they decomposed easily 

 and he had to conduct his anatomies during nocturnal hours. 

 However, he undoubtedly found this task more pleasant and less 

 offensive than some of his fellow-artists. He made comments in 

 his notebook that a dry, thin body of an aged person was much 

 easier to dissect than that of a fat, succulent, young one. 



What Leonardo was principally interested in was the propor- 

 tions of the human body since he was, by temperament, an ar- 

 tist. He related structure and function and was probably the 

 first to think in terms of cross-sectional anatomy. He paid a good 

 deal of attention to the composition of the eye since he regarded 

 it as the window of the soul. The vessels also attracted him, and 

 with further study, he might have discovered the circulation of 

 the blood. 



When he died, 120 volumes of notebooks were left to his 

 pupil, Francesco Melzi. They remained in the family of this in- 

 dividual for some time and eventually many became scattered 

 and lost. Napoleon took some of them from Milan to Paris. 

 Currently, twelve to fourteen books survive in England and Italy. 

 The largest proportion of these are preserved in Windsor Castle 

 where they were rediscovered and publicized by William Hunter 

 in 1784 (Belt, '55; Dempster, '34; McMurrich, '30; Streeter, '30). 



3, Universities of the Renaissance 



a. The University of Bologna. At the beginning of the hu- 

 manist movement, when there was an increasing demand for a 

 knowledge of human structure, the University of Bologna thrived 

 for a while as a center for anatomical teaching. At first, the 

 academic course was included under the division of Arts. 



In 1405, it became necessary for the professor of anatomy 

 to obtain a license from the Rector of the University in order 

 to acquire legal possession of a body before any anatomies could 

 be performed. Both teachers and students, however, were pro- 

 hibited from dissecting; this had to be done by a barber. Only 

 third year pupils were allowed to witness the demonstrations. 



In 1410, the city of Bologna assumed the burden of paying 

 the salary of professors; this inaugurated official control of uni- 



