Representing the Body. From variety to the perfection of convention: the anatomical plates of the Leonetto Comparini Anatomy Museum, University of Siena

The authors, in tracing the highest examples of the history of anatomical iconography for educational use, present the case of the collection of about 600 anatomical plates preserved in the Leonetto Comparini Anatomy Museum of the University of Siena: tables that were made specifically for educational use and that have been regularly used for the teaching of Anatomy throughout the 20th century. While in the 14th century Mondino de' Liuzzi (1275-1326) introduced the practice of dissection as a method of investigation and study of the human body, it was in the Renaissance that Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) introduced a completely innovative method in anatomical teaching methodology and a different way of conceiving anatomical science with his De humani corporis fabrica libri septem (4). To produce his plates in a way that would "exhibit the parts of the Human Body by means of new Plates, and present them precisely as they are in nature, preserving the order and respective position of each," Paolo Mascagni employed a novel technique capable of yielding particularly impressive results: copperplate etching. A FUNDAMENTAL SUPPORT FOR THE TEACHING OF SIENESE ANATOMY Until few decades ago, the halls of the University of Siena's Institute of Anatomy proudly displayed the magnificent plates of Paolo Mascagni's Anatomia Universa (8, 9, 10).