School of History and Philosophy of Science
RESEARCH SEMINAR
[The University of Sydney]
[https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20240401/31/8c/47/4b/1bf63ffa65bd451410b1837c_1276x850.jpg]
Visualizing the Body with Text and Image: The Early Modern Grammar of 
Anatomical Illustration
Gideon Manning (Cedar-Sinai Medical Centre)

Dates: Monday, 8 April 2024
Time: 5:30pm
Venue: New Law Building (F10), Level 3, Room 344
How to register: Free, no registration required

Abstract: The first anatomical images in printed books were the result of a now 
well-known negotiation between art, enterprise, and the study of nature. There 
have been many valuable contributions made to our understanding of these 
images—their genesis and function—by historians of science, historians of the 
book, and historians of art and visual culture. In this presentation, however, 
I will reflect on anatomical images with the history of medicine specifically 
in mind. I will argue that the early modern anatomist’s threefold distinction 
among historia-actio-usus served as the initial grammar of anatomical 
illustration. Examining the formal, investigative procedures of anatomists in 
the early modern period, at the precise moment when anatomical images became a 
standard feature of medical textbooks and works of natural philosophy, I will 
detail how the histo-ria-actio-usus distinction helps us understand the 
existence of divergent images, competing agendas, and disputes over accuracy. 
Case studies will come from early modern and later editions of Galen, Harvey, 
and Descartes, focusing on the mechanical body, as well as several more recent 
and non-Euro-Western anatomical illustrations.


Bio: Gideon Manning is Associate Professor of History of Medicine and 
Humanities at the Cedar-Sinai Medical Center, where he directs the Program in 
the History of Medicine.  initially trained as a philosopher, and later as an 
historian of science and medicine, Gideon’s research focuses especially on the 
emergence of a mechanical conception of nature and the human body.  He is the 
author more than two dozen articles and book chapters and the editor or 
co-editor of four books, most recently, “Women and the Life Sciences” and The 
Collected Wisdom of the Early Modern Scholar with Anne Marie Roos. Gideon is 
currently writing a monograph about the history of the good death and several 
papers related to the history of surgery.



[https://images.e2ma.net/0/images/templates/spacer.gif]

[The University of Sydney]
Keep in touch
[Facebook]<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gi2a5v/090r5ucb/4s2gaye>
[Twitter]<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gi2a5v/090r5ucb/kl3gaye>
[Instagram]<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gi2a5v/090r5ucb/0d4gaye>
[LinkedIn]<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gi2a5v/090r5ucb/g64gaye>
[YouTube]<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gi2a5v/090r5ucb/wy5gaye>
Copyright © 2024 The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia
Phone +61 2 9351 2222 ABN 15 211 513 464 CRICOS Number: 00026A

Please add hps.ad...@sydney.edu.au to your address book or senders safe list to 
make sure you continue to see our emails in the future.

Manage<https://app.e2ma.net/app2/audience/signup/1976084/1957350/1321894374/83979948518/?s=pnv-JHL_hbVxfudxrWvc7bo2JZKKE0rACwp9rJ-wgbE>
 your preferences | Opt 
out<https://t.e2ma.net/optout/gi2a5v/090r5ucb?s=sye9fJrfKBW4pHfG6PtURAQoLHlwnQep3BwehiXiQD0>
 using TrueRemove®
Got this as a forward? Sign 
up<https://app.e2ma.net/app2/audience/signup/1976084/1957350.1321894374/> to 
receive our future emails.
View this email online<https://t.e2ma.net/message/gi2a5v/090r5ucb>.

Disclaimer<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gi2a5v/090r5ucb/cr6gaye> | Privacy 
statement<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gi2a5v/090r5ucb/sj7gaye> | University of 
Sydney<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gi2a5v/090r5ucb/8b8gaye>


---------
SydPhil mailing list

To unsubscribe, change your membership options, find answers to common 
problems, or visit our online archives, please go to the list information page:

https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil

Reply via email to