Dissection revisited: Deciphering bodies and ancient medical texts

Abstract

Unlike traditional approaches to Greco-Roman medicine, which are strongly based on textual evidence, we addressed some problems, currently debated by historians, through a technique borrowed from the biological sciences: We reenacted an ancient anatomical dissection of the abdominal wall, the peritoneal cavity, and its organs (as described by Galen during the 2nd century CE, in his major treatise Anatomical Proceedings). Our aim was to clarify incongruencies about the text itself-considering the errors generated during its 14-century-long hand-copied manuscript tradition-and infer answers to contextual questions, such as the aim of the author, his audience, and the setting where the dissections took place. This hands-on practical method provided extratextual evidence to ongoing scholarly debates, which until now were mainly approached through textual scrutiny.