STUDY ON FOLIOS A OF THE "ANATOMY"

...speaking of his anatomical notes. Let us indeed hasten to reach his research into human anatomy, the object of the present publication ⁷).

Origin of anatomical knowledge among Greek artists.

In a previous study ⁸) I endeavored to show that there were no true studies of human anatomy in Greek or Roman antiquity; neither the artists nor even the physicians of those eras had dissected the human body. Greek sculptors had reached a marvelous knowledge of forms through the incessant contemplation of the nude in action during the exercises and struggles of the gymnasium. But the reason for these external forms remained unknown to them; in their representation of man, they spoke—with admirable correctness—a language they knew empirically, but of which they were ignorant of the rules and syntax. That is to say, for the artists of all antiquity, the knowledge of plastic forms was like a mother tongue that one can possess without having seemingly learned it, because its instruction was constant. But when, after a long sleep, the plastic arts awoke in an environment from which had disappeared the customs of the palestra palestra: a public place in ancient Greece or Rome dedicated to training in wrestling and other athletics, the cult of athletic strength and beauty, and

Anatomy during the Renaissance.

everything that could constitute an anatomical education, so to speak, unconscious, it was necessary to replace this education on one hand by drawing inspiration from the masterpieces of antiquity, and on the other hand by learning to interpret them through the study of the organization of the human body. The Greeks had known only morphology The study of the forms and structures of organisms; it became necessary to study anatomy; that is to say, it was necessary to acquire this knowledge as one acquires that of a dead language, which one learns laboriously through grammar and through the reading of good authors; the "good authors," here, are the masterpieces of Greek sculpture; the "grammar" is the anatomical analysis of the human body through dissection The practice of cutting open a body to study its internal structure.

Numerous studies on the anatomical notes of Leonardo da Vinci have been published, either from a general point of view or on specific questions; besides those already cited above, we will also mention: L. Choulant. History and Bibliography of Anatomical Illustrations original German: "Geschichte und Bibliographie der anatomischen Abbildungen", etc., Leipzig, 1852. — F. Raab, Leonardo da Vinci as a Natural Scientist original German: "Leonardo da Vinci als Naturforscher". Berlin, 1880. — C. Langer. Leonardo da Vinci, the First to Depict the Correct Position of the Human Pelvis original German: "Leonardo da Vinci, der erste Darsteller der richtigen Lage des menschlichen Beckens" (Proceedings of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna; 1867). — Alessandro Lanzillotti-Buonsanti. The Anatomical Thought of Leonardo da Vinci in Relation to Art original Italian: "Il pensiero anatomico di Leonardo da Vinci in rapporto all'arte". Milan, 1897.
The Anatomy of the Masters; History of Plastic Anatomy original French: "L’Anatomie des maîtres; Histoire de l’anatomie plastique", by Mathias-Duval and Albert Bical. Paris, 1890.