Early Modern Anatomy and the Arboreal Body

Abstract: This essay considers the material alignment of woodcut with human dissection in the early modern period. Just as dissection was the excavation of the body's networks of veins and nerves, the woodcut was the freeing of a design from a biological substrate to make it visible and intelligible. The refinement of woodcut in the first half of the sixteenth century did not just convey new concepts in anatomical thought but laid the groundwork for these discoveries. Through an examination of three case studies—Heinrich Vogtherr's flap anatomies, Andreas Vesalius's groundbreaking anatomical atlas, and Cornelis Anthonisz.'s venous map—this essay explores the interrelated innovations in early modern medicine and print media.