Hello! I'd like to start off by saying I found this book far more interesting than I originally expected. I must admit I jumped around quite a bit, but I kept within the theme of Leonardo's fascination with anatomy.
Leonardo believed that understanding anatomy was just as important to an artist as to a draughtsman. He was extremely passionate about discovering how the body works and went to great lengths to acquire new knowledge about the human body. Today when we picture an autopsy, we picture a clean body that has been very well preserved. Although still eerie or discomforting, we can go into an autopsy knowing that the procedure is safe, widely accepted, and likely been done before. In Leonardo's case the cadavers were unrefrigerated, the procedure was frowned upon by many, and nobody including him knew exactly what to expect. I admire his bravery and determination in seeking out the components of life in such morbid conditions.
Leonardo's early studies were more metaphysical in nature than what we would now consider "scientific". His intricate diagrams of a human skull attempt to locate where the soul is located. He believed it all to be in the one organ (the brain) rather than housed throughout the entire body, as some suspected.
Later notes on dissection tended to be far more quantitative. He performed a dissection on an old man and a young boy and noted all the differences in their flesh. He concluded that the heart was the primary circulatory organ, rather than the liver, which some believed it to be. He compared the heart to the pit of a peach in the way it draws nutrients in though a series of interlinked capillaries.
Towards the end of his life, his studies were a captivating combination of metaphysics and quantitative notes. He dissected a mother and her unborn fetus. He describes the fetus as a creature having no soul of its own and being completely dependent on the mother. He accounts for unborn babies dying at the time of their mothers because they have no soul of their own.
These studies were very controversial within the Catholic church and his studies were later hindered. It is unknown whether Leonardo stopped dissecting or if he simply resorted to using his own space, rather than the local hospital which had previously granted him special permission to perform his studies.
Leonardo believed that understanding anatomy was just as important to an artist as to a draughtsman. He was extremely passionate about discovering how the body works and went to great lengths to acquire new knowledge about the human body. Today when we picture an autopsy, we picture a clean body that has been very well preserved. Although still eerie or discomforting, we can go into an autopsy knowing that the procedure is safe, widely accepted, and likely been done before. In Leonardo's case the cadavers were unrefrigerated, the procedure was frowned upon by many, and nobody including him knew exactly what to expect. I admire his bravery and determination in seeking out the components of life in such morbid conditions.
Leonardo's early studies were more metaphysical in nature than what we would now consider "scientific". His intricate diagrams of a human skull attempt to locate where the soul is located. He believed it all to be in the one organ (the brain) rather than housed throughout the entire body, as some suspected.
Later notes on dissection tended to be far more quantitative. He performed a dissection on an old man and a young boy and noted all the differences in their flesh. He concluded that the heart was the primary circulatory organ, rather than the liver, which some believed it to be. He compared the heart to the pit of a peach in the way it draws nutrients in though a series of interlinked capillaries.
Towards the end of his life, his studies were a captivating combination of metaphysics and quantitative notes. He dissected a mother and her unborn fetus. He describes the fetus as a creature having no soul of its own and being completely dependent on the mother. He accounts for unborn babies dying at the time of their mothers because they have no soul of their own.
These studies were very controversial within the Catholic church and his studies were later hindered. It is unknown whether Leonardo stopped dissecting or if he simply resorted to using his own space, rather than the local hospital which had previously granted him special permission to perform his studies.
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