Highlights from the Wellcome Library's digital archive of historic books and ephemera. Over 100,000 available free and downloadable.

Wound Man

This figure, from a 15th century English anatomical manuscript, is an example of a ‘wound man’. Figures like these can be found in a number of manuscripts and printed books produced in the 15th and 16th centuries. This particular version is folio 53 verso from Anathomia by Claudius (Pseudo) Galen. It is captioned in Latin and the words do not provide any directions for treatment but merely describe the injury: for example, ‘penetration by a sword’ or ‘an arrow whose point has remained in the thigh’. The weapons are shown as they pierce the body and here, the positions of the man’s internal organs are indicated. The exact purpose of the wound man image is not known, but it might have served as a reminder of the injuries to which the human body is prone. These typically range from blows to the head, to stab wounds and arrow piercings, sometimes even showing dogs or snakes

biting the legs. 

Paolo Mascagni's Exploded Torso

Paolo Mascagni’s fabulously detailed, hand-coloured engraving Viscera from his Anatomia Universa, a comprehensive work of anatomy with forty-four hand coloured plates. The book was published in Pisa between 1823 and 1831, after Mascagni’s death in 1815. Mascagni was the Prosector of Anatomy at the University of Siena, responsible for leading dissection for demonstration and research. He died in 1815 of Malaria which was common in Italy at the time. 

D'Agoty's E'corch'e of a Woman's Back 

On a more anatomical note, the next image, a mezzotint of a female écorché torso revealing the muscles of the back, shows the extraordinary talent of Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty who made this print after observing a dissection carried out by J. F. Duverney, a Parisian surgeon and anatomist. Mezzotint was a new technique developed by Jacob Christoph le Blon for whom d’Agoty worked as an assistant and to whose 3 colour process d’Agoty added black. The result has a velvety finish with the subtlety of a pastel drawing and the depth of an oil painting. The print is approximately life-size, (measuring 60.6cm x 45.6 cm) as are many of the other works by the same artist held by the Wellcome Library. 

Courtesy Wellcome Library