sinterpreted in any way to prohibit dissection, this would
surely be the practice supposed to fall under its provisions. Here we
find Mondino, less than twenty years after the promulgation of the
bull, writing about this very practice, however, and calmly suggesting
that he follows it as a routine, in a book that was published without
let or hindrance from the ecclesiastical authorities, and that became
for the next two centuries the most used book in the teaching of
anatomy in educational institutions that were directly under
ecclesiastical authorities. If the bull was misinterpreted so as to
forbid dissection, as has been said, surely this flagrant violation of
it would not have been permitted. It is clear that, if there was a
misinterpretation, it must have come later in the history of anatomy.
But of that we shall find no trace any more than at this time.

Here are the quotations from the Anatomy of Mondino which show that he
practiced not one but many methods of making dissections, according to
the purposes he had in view. The leaf and line references are to the
Dryander Edition, Marburg, 1541. (Taken from Prof. Pilcher.)

"I do not consider separately here the anatomy of component parts,
because their anatomy does not appear {44} clearly in the fresh
subject, but rather in those macerated in water." (Leaf 2, lines
8-13.)

".... these differences are more noticeable _in the cooked_ or
perfectly dried body, and so you need not be concerned about them,
as perhaps _I will make an anatomy upon such a one at another time_
and will write what I observe with my own senses, as I have proposed
from the beginning." (Leaf 60, lines 14-17.)

"What the members are to which these nerves come cannot well be seen
in such dissection as this, but it should be liquified with rain
water, and this is not contemplated in the present body." (Leaf 60,
lines 31-33.)

"After the veins you will note many muscles and many large and
strong cords, the complete anatomy of which you will not endeavor to
find in such a body, but in a body dried in the sun for three years,
as I have demonstrated at another time; I also declared completely
their number, and wrote the anatomy of the muscles of the arms,
hands and feet in a lecture which I gave over the first, second,
third and fourth subjects."

As must be clear to anyone, many of these expressions are, as
Professor Pilcher insists, intelligible only if