Hello lovelies!
I am to begin writing my MA dissertation and have decided on the topic of dissection in EME, aiming for a focus outside of Italy to avoid writing on the already oversaturated scholarship on Vesalius. I am considering an essay discussing public perception related to dissection, taboos, and speculative fear regarding the practice. I.E worries relating to the acquisition of cadavers etc.
I have acquired Klestinec's 'Theatres of anatomy', Sawday's 'The body emblazoned', and Siraisi's 'history of medicine'. Is anyone able to suggest any articles / books that may be useful?
Thanks! X
Hm, have you checked into Katherine Park, Secrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection? Her focus is still Italy, but she is way beyond Vesalius in scope and in archival sources. :D I think you'd be especially interested in the early chapters on nuns and dissection to prove their saints were in fact saints. Clare of Montefalco (d. 1308) is the most famous--after her death, an autopsy determined that her claim to have a crucifix impressed on her heart was physically accurate.
There's also Estella Weis-Kreiji, "Heart Burial in Medieval and Early Post-Medieval Central Europe," in Body Parts and Bodies Whole: Changing Relations and Meaning, ed. Rebay-Salibury et al., 119-134. That's not dissection in the sense of autopsies, but it definitely gets at wider cultural meanings/purposes of cutting into dead human bodies and has a great non-Italy bibliography.
Cool topic!