This article was downloaded by: [informa internal users] On: 8 December 2010 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 755239602] Publisher Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 3741 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Annals of Science Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713692742 Fabricius's and Harvey's representations of animal generation Karin J. Ekholma a Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA Online publication date: 05 July 2010 To cite this Article Ekholm, Karin J.(2010) 'Fabricius's and Harvey's representations of animal generation', Annals of Science, 67: 3, 329 — 352 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2010.488149 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2010.488149 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. ANNALS OF SCIENCE, Vol. 67, No. 3, July 2010, 329352 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation KARIN J. EKHOLM Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Summary Fabricius ab Aquapendente commissioned coloured paintings of the reproductive parts and foetuses of a vast spectrum of animals. His published works on generation feature corresponding engravings. In contrast, his student William Harvey questioned the accuracy and usefulness of anatomical illustrations and used alternative approaches to represent his observations. I discuss these anatomists’ criteria for selecting specimens, their techniques of investigation, and how these decisions affected their observations and representations of animal generation. I consider what each medium*paintings, intaglios, written accounts*discloses or highlights and also their respective limitations. My study of Fabricius’s colour plates also reveals the possibility that they served as inspiration for the first colour anatomical prints: a copy of the illustrations of foetuses is bound with drafts of Aselli’s plates, and I suggest a possible link between the colour images. Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fabricius’s selection, investigations, and representations of animals Harvey’s selection, investigations, and representations of animals . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix: Coloured woodblock prints in Aselli’s De lactibus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 330 343 348 350 1. Introduction William Harvey wrote the Exercitationes de generatione animalium (London, 1651) with his teacher Fabricius ab Aquapendente’s two exquisitely illustrated treatises on generation at his side.1 The Paduan anatomist’s De formato foetu (Venice, 1600) features 33 intaglios of foetuses, placentas, and uteruses of 10 different kinds of live-bearing animals. The posthumously published De formatione ovi et pulli (Venice, 1621) includes printed images of the reproductive parts of hens, different kinds of bird eggs, and over 70 representations of 1 William Harvey, Exercitationes de generatione animalium (London, 1651), I quote from the first translation into English, which was anonymous, Anatomical exercitations, concerning the generation of living creatures (London, 1653). I have also consulted the translation by Gweneth Whitteridge, Disputations touching the generation of animals (London, 1981). Harvey studied medicine in Padua from 15991602. His copies of Fabricius’s De formato foetu and De formatione ovi et pulli were published as Opera physica anatomica cum indicibus capitum et rerum notatu dignarum (Padua, 1625), are held by the Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington. Annals of Science ISSN 0003-3790 print/ISSN 1464-505X online # 2010 Taylor & Francis http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2010.488149 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 330 K.J. Ekholm developing foetal chicks.2 The series depicting the day-to-day growth of chick foetuses appears to be the first of its kind. While Harvey closely follows his teacher in respect to the content and order of subjects that he addresses, he does not include images and prefaces the work by questioning the accuracy and usefulness of anatomical illustrations. I examine how Harvey represents his observations to the reader without pictures, and I reflect on how these alternatives serve his purposes. Fabricius commissioned not only engravings, but also coloured paintings of a vast spectrum of anatomical parts. My aim throughout this paper is to consider what each mode of representation*coloured plates, intaglios, verbal accounts*reveals or highlights and also their respective limitations that led the anatomists to adopt supplementary modes of communication. Their criteria for selecting and their techniques of examining animals are also significant in the production of representations. I point out ways in which their choice of animals, both of the species and of individuals within the selected breed, draws attention to aspects of generation that they particularly valued. Furthermore, I consider how techniques that the anatomists used to investigate specimens affected their observations, and how they figure in their accounts and representations. 2. Fabricius’s selection, investigations, and representations of animals In the dedication of De visione, voce, auditu (Venice, 1600), Fabricius announced a Totius animalis fabricae theatrum, a series of illustrated anatomical treatises that he suggested students purchase one by one. He boasts that while Andreas Vesalius produced only 40 images, he has plans for 300 which will also be superior in quality and precision. Moreover, he reports that for the benefit of men possessing any degree of instruction, he provides life-size images, which, ‘no less importantly, we have painted with their colour. Besides, we have required two copies of all the images, one in colour and one not’.3 At the time of his death, he bequeathed these paintings and copies of his printed books to the State of Venice with the stipulation that they be made available to the public.4 Since 1622 they have resided in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. 2 It is impossible to determine decisively whether they are strictly engravings or engravings supplemented by etchings. Special thanks to Ed Bernstein for examining the printed images with me. Classic accounts of Fabricius’s images include G. Sterzi, ‘Le tabulae anatomicae ed i codici marciani con note autografe di Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente’, Anatomischer Anzeiger, 35 (1909), 33548; Loris Premuda, Storia dell’iconografia anatomica (Milano, 1957), 14451; Ugo Stefanutti, ‘Le pitture dell’anatomia di Girolamo Fabrici d’Acquapendente’, Atti del Rassegna Medica  Convivium Sanitatis, (1957), 3740, and ‘L’opera scientific ed artistic di Girolamo Fabrici d’Aquapendente (ca. 15331619)’, Ateneo Veneto, 181(1994), 1818. Fabricius’s illustrations are also briefly discussed in K.B. Roberts and J.D.W. Tomlinson, The Fabric of the Body: European Traditions of Anatomical Illustrations (Oxford, 1992), 24954, and in Harald Moe, The Art of Anatomical Illustrations in the Renaissance and Baroque Periods (Copenhagen, 1995), 538. Surprisingly, Ludwig Choulant Geschichte und Bibliographie der anatomischen Abbildung nach ihrer beziehung auf anatomische Wissenschaft und Bildene Kunst (Leipzig, 1852) omits mention of Fabricius. The Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice hosted an exhibit of the coloured plates in December 2004May 2005, and published a collection of essays on Fabricius’s tavole, Il teatro dei corpi, edited by Maurizio Rippa Bonati and José Pardo-Tomas (Milan, 2004). 3 Fabricius, De visione, voce, auditu (Venice, 1600), introduction. 4 G. Favaro, Biografia (note 2), 32539, includes a copy of Fabricius’s will. I examined Fabricius’s copy of De formato foetu in the Marciana. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation 331 Fabricius intended for the coloured plates and engravings to be viewed side-byside. For the most part, the paintings are not labelled and it is necessary to refer to the engravings to identify anatomical structures. In the text of De formato foetu, the parts that are represented pictorially are marked with an asterisk, and the corresponding plate and key letters are indicated in the margins.5 Fabricius dedicated the work to a descendant of the emperor Vitellius who was known for his appetite and fine taste, and the opening words make a play on the term ‘tabula’ that immediately draws attention to the copperplate prints and his animal subjects. ‘On these tables of mine’, the dedication begins, ‘I am offering your Excellency no such welcoming banquet’ as that prepared for Vitellius, which included livers of the scar, brains of pheasants, flamingo tongues, and moray intestines. Instead, Fabricius announces, it is the beginnings of animal life that he sets before the count.6 He had harvested the anatomical knowledge that he presents from observations and experiments carried out during the half-century that he served as professor of anatomy at Padua. In the autumn of 1591, he requested that lectures begin and end as early as possible in order that he might tend to images he was preparing.7 Of the 212 coloured tables in the Marciana*it appears that a little over twothirds of his planned paintings came to fruition*25 depict animal reproductive parts and foetuses; all but three have corresponding engravings.8 Of all Fabricius’s treatises, his work on generation relies most heavily on images to communicate his observations. These images, bound with his printed copy of De formato foetu, follow the section delineating the historia of reproductive and foetal parts.9 In addition to the paintings in Venice, there are two known copies of treatises that include coloured 5 In contrast, in the treatise on birds, the discussion of the hen’s anatomy is the only written part that directly references engravings. The parts of viviparous animals in the colour plates in the Philadelphia copy are not labelled with letters, but in Venice three tavole, Rari 119.10, 14, and 16, feature letters that serve to identify parts. 6 Fabricius, De formato foetu, letter of dedication. Both Latin and Italian use the same word for dining tables and pages of images in books. 7 Giuseppe Favaro, ‘ L’insegnamento anatomico di Girolamo Fabrici d’Acquapendente’, Contributo del R. Instituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti alla celebrazione del VII centenario della Università di Padova (Venice, 1921), 117. The best source of biographical information on Fabricius (15331619) is Giuseppe Favaro, ‘Contributi alla biografia di Girolamo Fabrici d’Acquapendente’, in Memorie e documenti per la storia della Università di Padova, vol. I (Padova, 1922), 241348. Also see M.Muccillo’s entry in the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, vol. 43 (1993), 76874. Adelmann’s biographical sketch in The Embryological Treatises of Hieronymus Fabricius of Aquapendente (Ithaca, 1942), 631, relies on Favaro. 8 In the Marciana, 167 tavole are bound in eight volumes that consist only of paintings. The remaining plates are bound with his printed books on corresponding subjects. Ugo Stefanutti, Pitture (note 2), 37, and the inventory in Teatro (note 2), 320, agree on the number of tavole that are not incorporated into books, but there is disagreement over those that are. The Marciana catalogue and exhibition catalogue list 24 included in De formato foetu (Rari 119). I found there to be 25, which is in agreement with Adelmann (note 7), 33, who relied on personal correspondence with the director of the library. Marciana Rari 119.1 and 2 do not have corresponding engravings and are not described in the text. The first appears to be a uterus and the second is very indistinct*it has the appearance of a plant with fine white roots. Rari 119.9, which depicts a sheep foetus enclosed in its chorion, also lacks a corresponding engraving. 9 The De formato foetu is partitioned into two books: the first focuses on describing the extra-foetal structures of conceptuses (including the membranes, placenta, umbilical vessels, and fluids) followed by a brief account of the internal structures of foetuses (including the vessels from the umbilicus and their contents, and structures unique to the foetal heart). Of the 10 chapters (19 pages) comprising Part I, only the final chapter (pp. 1819) treats internal parts of the foetus. In Part II, he discusses the action and use of each part. The treatise on avian generation consists of two sections, one on the reproductive parts, the other on the egg; each of these is divided into the characteristic three sections, i.e. historia, action, use. On this three-part structure see note 24. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 332 K.J. Ekholm plates: an incomplete edition of his work on vision, voice and hearing at McGill University in Montreal, and a copy of De formato foetu at the College of Physicians in Philadelphia.10 The latter includes 23 paintings of animal parts; I argue below that these appear to have been copied from the plates in the Marciana.11 Interestingly, the paintings in Philadelphia are bound with drawings and drafts of prints of the woodcuts that accompany Aselli’s De lactibus sive lacteis venis (Milan, 1627). In the appendix later, I present some evidence that suggests that copies of Fabricius’s coloured plates may have served as an inspiration for the latter.12 Fabricius describes many more kinds of animals than those depicted, which raises the question of how he decided which ones to represent. He does not discuss his method of selection, but it appears that he chose representatives of each of the four main types of placentas, plus examples of minor variations in each group. At the beginning of De formato foetu, Fabricius notes that while the colour, softness, and texture of placentas is uniform in almost all viviparous animals, it varies widely in size, position, shape, and the number of parts.13 In the works discussed, the structure known to us as the ‘placenta’ is called the carnea substantia, or fleshy substance. The term ‘placenta’, coined by Realdus Colombus, described only the pancake-like structure found in humans, rodents, insectivores and primates.14 Vesalius had been the first to represent three of the main variations in shape in the second edition of De fabrica (Basle, 1555).15 He and Fabricius both selected the human structure as the model of the disk-shaped group. Mice and guinea pigs are also in this group, and Fabricius included illustrations of them because of the marked variations of their placentas from those of humans and of each other. Mouse placentas are closely attached to the foetuses, and since there is a great difference between the shape of human and mouse uteri, the foetuses are positioned very differently (Figure 1). Guinea pigs are shown because of unique appendages to 10 According to Adelmann (note 2), (665, n. 149) and Rippa Bonati, ‘Anatomia in mostra’ in Teatro, 24, these are the only two known copies. I have examined those in Venice and in Philadelphia, but not in Montreal. The catalogue to an exhibition at the Museum of Human Anatomy at McGill University, Exhibition of the History of Anatomical Illustration (Montreal, 1930), 20, explains, ‘In this copy the plates are in duplicate, in two states. The duplicates have been painted over in oils on a black background and have special printed explanations.’ As I discuss below, it is decidedly not the case in the Marciana or Philadelphia copies that the paintings are coloured-in engravings. Adelmann’s descriptions of the plates in the Marciana rely on personal correspondence with the then director of the Marciana, and M. Rippa Bonati reprimands Adelmann for focusing on the North American copies and not providing images of those in the Marciana. In defense of Adelmann, his volumes on Fabricius were published in 1942, an inopportune time to be visiting Italy. 11 The Philadelphia volume includes a copy of the painting of a sheep foetus enclosed in its chorion that resembles Marciana Rari 119.9 and lacks a corresponding engraving. The Philadelphia copy has seven paintings of human uteruses and foetuses that are represented by engravings, but are not found in the Marciana. 12 Aselli, De lactibus sive lacteis venis (Milan, 1627). 13 Fabricius, De formato foetu, 45 [25154]. The exception to the uniformity of texture are the pig and horse, the exception to the relatively uniform colour is the cow. 14 Realdus Columbus, De re anatomica, XII (Venice, 1559), 248. 15 Andreas Vesalius, De fabrica (Basle, 1543), is significantly different from the second edition in its discussion of the fleshy substance. In the former, Vesalius begins treatment of foetal membranes (V, 17, 540, Plate 62) by noting he had been limited to dissecting gravid animals because of the scarcity of pregnant human cadavers, and that he would therefore refrain from a long discussion of the formation of foetuses. Nevertheless, he includes an illustration of a human foetus, albeit represented with a canine placenta. In the second edition, he correctly represents the placenta of a human as disc-shaped, of a dog as girdle-shaped, and of the buffalo as cotyledonary. 333 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation Figure 1. Fetal mice with disc-shaped placentas, which are seen at top right closely attached to animal. All engravings courtesy of the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 334 K.J. Ekholm the disk-shaped part (Figure 2).16 The second main category is the girdle-shape found in dogs and cats, of which he represents the former (Figure 3).17 Ruminants comprise the third group: rather than one solid fleshy substance, their foetus’ umbilical vessels terminate in a large number of fleshy masses known as ‘cotyledons’, which vary between species in size, shape, and colour. The uterine surfaces in these animals feature protrusions, called carunculae, to which the cotyledons adhere.18 There are two prominent variations within this category: convex carunculae with concave cotyledons, and vice versa. Fabricius depicts a gravid bovine uterus as an example of the former and ovine parts to represent the latter (Figures 4, 5 and 6).19 In addition to the types of fleshy substances which Vesalius describes, Fabricius discusses horses and pigs, which initially appear to lack a corresponding structure entirely. He includes an illustration of a section cut from an equine uterus that is directly attached to the chorion (the outermost foetal membrane, which is usually attached to the uterus via the fleshy substance). The two layers are shown peeled apart, and he notes that the small cavities in the uterus and the ‘innumerable tubercles’ take the place of cotyledons protruding from the surface of the chorion.20 Fabricius also provides detailed accounts of several other key features depicted in the images, including variations between uteri, membranes, and umbilical vessels of different animals. I focus on the carnea substantia because it elucidates his criteria for selecting animals, because a disproportionately large number of the illustrations are devoted to showing its various forms, and because the images of cotyledons are particularly striking and initially quite baffling. Moreover, the structure and use of the fleshy substance was widely debated during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Particularly controversial was the question of whether umbilical and uterine vessels are joined by anastomoses (as Fabricius contended) or rather have blind ends that terminate in the substance (as initially proposed by Julius Caesar Arantius, and later advocated by Harvey).21 The issue at stake was whether blood passes from the mother to the foetus or whether the latter produces its own blood, which had significant implications for the ontological status of the foetus. Another 16 Fabricius, De formato foetu, human placenta: engr.39; mouse: engr.24; guinea pig engr.30. Ibid., dog placenta: engr.2728, labelled ‘C’ in Figures 53 and 56. Confusingly, Fabricius uses the terms cotyledon and caruncle interchangeably. ‘Cotyledons’ is derived from the Greek term for cup. In both Fabricius and contemporary works, ‘acetabula’ (from the Latin term for little dishes in which vinegar was served) is used to designate the same structures as ‘cotyledon.’ 19 Thomas A. Horrocks, ‘Historical collections of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia’ lists Fabricius’s coloured plates as one of the crowning glories of the collection. The image reproduced is mistakenly identified as a horse foetus. It is actually a foetal lamb, and it is the coloured version of the engraving that I label Figure 5. The cow uterus with carunculae and cotyledons is depicted on tavola XVII [engr.29, Figure 42]. In the written description accompanying the plates, Fabricius notes that their cotyledons are blackish and concave, and that they are thinner and broader than in sheep. In the text, p. 6 [254], he notes that that the cow’s are larger and not reddish (as are those of the sheep), and that the cotyledons are perforated and not unlike the fungi that common people call sponzuoli. I am indebted to Nico Bertoloni Meli for finding that ‘sponzuoli’ are morchella rotunda, or round morels, in the Venetian dialect. 20 The coloured plates are accompanied by prose explanations of the paintings. In the explanation of the horse, Adelmann (note 2), 633 [366], he notes that the horse and pig both appear to lack a placenta, which he omits from the legend to the corresponding engraving. Here he also notes that the vessels distributed between the outer and inner coats of the uterus are ‘a thing which it is better to see than to hear described’. 21 Julius Caesar Arantius, De humano foetu (Rome, 1564); Harvey (note 1), (1651), 287, (1653), 429, (1981), 435; Fabricius, De formato foetu (note 2), 1218 [297308] discusses Arantius’ opinion and presents objections to this view. 17 18 335 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation Figure 2. Fetal guinea pigs with disc-shaped placentas. Note the double structure that is unique to the species. K.J. Ekholm Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 336 Figure 3. Fetal dog covered by membranes and girdle-shaped placenta. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation Figure 4. 337 Gravid sheep uterus, note the carunculae and cotyledons. reason to focus on the placenta and its interface with the uterus is that an understanding of these parts, and of what was known about them during the first half of the seventeenth century, helps clarify the following passage, which sheds light on Fabricius as teacher and on the composition of the treatise.22 At the outset of the historia of the uterus, Fabricius explains, To demonstrate how they are joined to the umbilical vessels, we shall dissect the uterus itself, and first introduce into the uterine cavity through the cervix a 22 His own publications, as well as lecture notes and letters written by his students, reveal that he publically dissected and vivisected many kinds of gravid animals and foetuses. On Fabricius’s education and teaching appointments, see G. Favaro (note 2), 10936. Antonio Favaro, Atti della nazione germanica artista nello Studio di Padova, 2 vols (Venice, 19111912), provide the notes of the German Nation, which record dissections Fabricius performed during lectures. The following reveal his consistent attention to generation from the mid-1570s through 1600: Jan.1576: dissection of living gravid ewe and foramen ovale (which according to a letter by the German Councilor, was followed by a long and interesting discussion) in J. Crato Consiliorum et epistolarum medicinalium, lib V (Frankfurt, 1671) 3436. Jan.1579: dissected three human cadavers, including a woman in labour; demonstrated by dissection the Galenic doctrine that the ‘liver is the source not only of the governance but also of the generation of the veins, and that the umbilical veins arise from the liver like plants from the earth’ (J. Crato Consiliorum, lib VI, 5925). Jan.1584: dissection of living pregnant ewe (Atti, I, 1934). Jan.1586: demonstrated uterus and placenta of pregnant woman (Atti I, 210, 223, 2257). Jan.1589: formation of foetus in utero subject of lecture (Atti I, 26771). Winter ‘92: private course on anatomy of foetus (Atti II, 32, 367). Mar.1593: demonstrated genital organs in many cadavers of both sexes (Atti II, 32, 367). Dec.1597: discussed anatomy of foetal sheep (Atti II, 109, 114). Nov.1600: publicly demonstrated anatomy of foetal horse and sheep (Atti II, 171, 180). Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 338 K.J. Ekholm Figure 5. First fetal lamb, which Fabricius describes as having a distressed appearance. In sheep the carunculae are cup-shaped, the cotyledons are the round appendages. probe to serve as a constant guide, so that we may cut open the substance of the uterus alone throughout its entire length and avoid rupturing the fetal membranes. Then when the carunculae appear, they should be separated from the uterus by pressing with the fingers to disclose the anastomosis or connection of the uterine with the umbilical vessels. You will observe this anastomosis more easily in the fully developed fetus, for many black points are to be seen in the cavities of the uterus where the carunculae are received.23 The tone suggests that he has incorporated lecture notes into the treatise: he provides his students and readers not only with an account of what is located where, but also practical pointers on dissection procedures, such as how to detach the conceptus from the uterus with as little damage as possible. Furthermore, he identifies the stage of development at which certain structures (the interface between foetal and uterine vessels) are best observed. He notes the difficulty of being able to see certain structures and describes how he had tried to ascertain whether uterine and umbilical vessels are connected. 23 Fabricius, De formato foetu, 23 [249]. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation Figure 6. 339 Second fetal lamb. Fabricius comments on the unusually long allantois. Fabricius’s studies of animal generation follow the classical sequence of presenting a historia of the pertinent parts, an enumeration of their actions, and an explanation of the reasons behind the structures and qualities.24 In both treatises, Fabricius describes several procedures that he performed in order to see structures more clearly or to discern their use. A rather macabre example is his observation that certain parts that were difficult to discern in dead or calm birds became visible in a chicken being strangled. He also vivisected gravid animals: following Galen, he explains that ligating or cutting the umbilical arterial vessel renders the foetus quite 24 On this three-part structure in Fabricius’s work see Andrew Cunningham ‘Fabricius and the ‘‘Aristotle Project’’ in anatomical teaching and research at Padua’, in The Medical Renaissance of the Sixteenth Century, edited by Andrew Wear et al. (Cambridge, 1985), 195222, and The Anatomical Renaissance (Aldershot, 1997), chapter 6. Also see Cunningham, ‘Il ‘Teatro della struttura di tutto il mondo animale’: Fabrici e le sue illustrazioni anatomiche’, Teatro (note 2), 7482. Nancy G. Siraisi in ‘Historia, action, utilitas: Fabrici e le scienze della vita nel Cinquecento’ in the same volume, especially, 66 67, supplements Cunningham’s argument by pointing out that the three-fold approach was part of the Galenic as well as the Aristotelian traditions. As an example of what constitutes a historia, Siraisi quotes Vesalius, ‘the position, form, dimensions, construction, substance, connection of the veins, origins and implantations, ligaments and others things of such kind that are necessary to observe attentively in the historia of the uterus’. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 340 K.J. Ekholm sluggish and inert. This intervention confirmed his view that the foetus does not produce its own vital spirits, but rather receives them from its mother.25 He also used inflation for a variety of purposes. He relates that he tried to pump air up into a hen’s uterus in order to determine whether it is able to admit seed or is too tightly closed and thus fertilised by irradiation from a distance.26 He also inflated parts of reproductive tracts, seemingly in order to see otherwise small and collapsed structures more clearly. The legend of one of the foetal lamb illustrations notes that the allantois is inflated, and the drawing includes the strings that bind both ends. This allantois is a sack that contains liquid in utero, and while Fabricius does not explain why he has inflated it, presumably his intent is to give it a life-like appearance. Natural historians, artists, and anatomists faced the decision of whether to represent actual individual animals or to create a composite that depicts what they consider typical features. Those who chose the former were furthermore left with the challenge of selecting which individuals to represent. Fabricius provides images of two individual foetal sheep close to the time of birth, and he highlights certain slight abnormalities in position and structure that they exhibit. He notes the unusual position of the first lamb (Figure 5): its head is not at the mouth of the uterus and is turned back, and the umbilical vessels are wrapped around its body. While he explains that the second lamb (Figure 6) is more ordinary in these respects, the difference in length between the two sides of the allantois is unusually large. Certainly, neither of these lambs qualify as teratological. Rather, Fabricius’s comments reveal that he sought to depict actual individuals with their minor variations, instead of composites of model parts taken from several animals. It is also noteworthy that the images and organisation of De formato foetu focus less on the developmental stages than on various manifestations of parts. Representations of the dog, pig, mouse, and guinea pig, which all carry multiple offspring, depict various layers of membranes removed from different foetuses within a single plate. There are multiple plates depicting the sheep and horse: first, intact gravid uteri, and as one turns the pages, layers are stripped away to reveal further membranes, vessels, and finally, a foetus laid bare. Similarly, chicks on each day of incubation are shown at multiple stages of dissection: foetuses are visible through a membrane in the open egg, then removed from the egg with various vessels and membranes in tow, and finally cut open to disclose their inner parts. In De ovi et pulli, Fabricius relates that he had commissioned an artist to produce coloured paintings of the foetal chicks, but the painter was unable to adequately reproduce the transparency of their membranes.27 He mentions the coloured paintings of chicks again in his 1615 will. Fabricius provided funds for Johannes Prevotius, a friend and former student, to see unpublished manuscripts through the press. In a codicil added the following year, Fabricius requested that the publication of his ‘book on the egg’ be expedited and published with the coloured paintings and engravings. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that coloured plates of hens or chicks have survived.28 25 Fabricius, De formato foetu, 280 and 294. Fabricius, De ovi et pulli, 4 [146]. His inability to do so leads him to believe that the semen does not physically join the egg, but rather that the male seed has a formative power which acts on the egg by irradiation from a pouch, the so-called bursa of Fabricius. He discovered this receptacle, which he believed was intended to collect the male seed. 27 Fabricius, De ovi et pulli, 35 [187]. 28 For a copy of the will, see Favaro (note 2), 327 and 331. Favaro 295, notes that the coloured plates of chicks are lost. 26 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation 341 Fabricius’s interest in capturing the transparency of membranes is evident in the extant coloured plates, and the results are a significant aid to acquiring an understanding of the featured parts. Thinly-applied paint reveals vessels, umbilical cords, fleshy parts, and foetuses showing through membranes, an effect that would be very difficult to achieve in engravings. An example of the difference is clear by comparing the coloured plate and print of a foetal sheep encased in a uterus*it is only in the paintings that it is clear that the carunculae lie beneath the uterine wall (Figures 4 and 7). The capacity of the oils to depict layers makes clear not only the situation of parts with respect to each other, but also shows varying degrees of thickness of membranes. In this painting of the sheep, the area where the uterus is cut away (the upper left corner) exposes the outermost foetal membrane, the chorion. The coloured version reveals that the uterus is considerably thicker than the chorion, a quality that the engraving fails to convey.29 Colour helps the viewer distinguish between different kinds of fine structures that are difficult to distinguish in engravings, such as the minute features and blood vessels of foetal mice.30 Moreover, gradations in the colour Figure 7. Fetal lamb covered by membranes. Compare to Figure 4, the corresponding engraving. Painted table, Courtesy of the College of Physicians, Philadelphia. 29 The fineness of blood vessels is remarkable in several paintings, most notably Marciana Rari 119.17, the mice, and 18, the guinea pigs. 30 Marciana, Rari 119.17, displays intricate details of foetal mice. Similarly, in the text that accompanies the painting of a two-month gravid human uterus, tavola I, fig. 1, he notes its small superficial veins. These veins are neither included in the prints nor in its key. Presumably the fine structure of these vessels would be lost among the engraving’s shading. Particularly noteworthy are the crystalline bladders of the sheep and dog, and the amniotic sack enclosing the fetal pigs, Marciana Rari 119.4, 24, 12, 13. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 342 K.J. Ekholm tone communicate subtle folds and twists in the membranes, as well as areas in which they are pulled or laden heavy with contents. There is thus a variety of ways in which the oils’ capacity to exhibit a greater sense of dimensionality aids the viewer in understanding the images. In the painting of the section of an equine chorion attached to the uterus, (which Fabricius shows to argue that there is a structure equivalent to the placenta at the interface between them), the artist not only created the illusion of dimensions, but applied paint thickly to form a rutted surface.31 The capacity of paint to depict a vast spectrum of textures is highlighted by the contrast between the peeled-apart parts of the horse and Fabricius’s praise for the artists’ ability to convey the smoothness of the pig uterus. In the written description that accompanies the coloured paintings, Fabricius explains his reasons for depicting the pig uterus partially dissected, adding, ‘and also so that you may marvel at its smoothness’.32 In contrast, in the legend to the engravings he merely notes that he depicts a partially-dissected gravid uterus in order to show the veins running through the internal surface of the womb. While degrees of bumpiness may be conveyed by prints, smoothness that evokes a sense of marvel is arguably a quality that engravings do not convey. In these descriptions of the coloured plates, Fabricius addresses readers in the second person, repeatedly urging them to behold the natural size, shape, position and colour of parts of a given animal.33 It appears that he may also have used the plates in the classroom: an unnamed student’s notes from a course in the mid-1580s include a drawing of a hand that appears to have been copied from one his teacher’s coloured plates.34 It is clear that he desired them to be used to study anatomy. His enthusiastic language, the time and money that he invested in their production, his exacting standards, and his will reveal that he placed tremendous value in producing accurate colour representations. But many questions remain about the creation of the various colour editions and engravings. It is not known for certain whether the prints or paintings were produced first, but the accuracy of the colours suggest that artists painted the dissected specimens, and then made engravings from the coloured plates. Several of the paintings in the Marciana have ‘intagliato’ handwritten on them to indicate that engravings have been completed, which further suggests that the paintings preceded the engravings.35 Many of the coloured figures in this copy have been cut out of another sheet, pasted on the page, and then surrounded by a dark background.36 In Philadelphia, the backgrounds are entirely covered in black paint, and the sheets have not been written upon, cut, or pasted. While there is no evidence to identify who executed the paintings, the diversity of styles and materials of those in the Marciana suggest that they are the work of 31 Marciana Rari 119.20. Facimile in Adelmann (note 2), 635[367] ‘eius laevitatem admireris’. Further striking examples of the paintings conveying a sense of smoothness which is not conveyed by the engravings are the silver slipperylooking dogfish foetuses in Rari 119.19. 33 Including the parts of a human conceptus (notes this about the uterus in tavola I, fig. 1; about the placenta in fig. 4 [ engr.5]; and about the foetus in fig. 5 [ engr.6]) and a canine foetus (tavola XXV, fig. 5 [engr.28, fig. 59]) in which a pup is freed of membrane to reveal its ‘position, size, and other attributes more precisely. All these features were altogether difficult to observe in so small a fetus’. 34 Guiseppe Ongaro, ‘Fabrici: dai manoscritti alla stampa’, in Teatro (note 2), 163. 35 Tavole in Marciana Rari 119 which are marked ‘intagliato’: 4, 5, 6, 15, 19. The claim that the paintings preceded the engravings is also put forth by Martin Kemp, ‘Il mio bell’ingenio’. L’anatomia visiva nel Theatrum totius animalis fabricate di Fabrici’ in Teatro (note 2), 94. 36 Tavole in Marciana Rari 119 of which parts have been cut and pasted: 7, 8, 17, 18, 19. 32 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation 343 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 several different artists.37 This is not the case in Philadelphia, where the style, paper, and paint are uniform. The latter appear to have been painted by a lesser artist than those who prepared Fabricius’s copy; in contrast to the luminosity and sheen exhibited by most of the tavole in the Marciana, they have a matt appearance. These differences suggest that a single hand copied those in Philadelphia from Fabricius’s plates at some point after they had been cut, arranged, and pasted. 3. Harvey’s selection, investigations, and representations of animals Harvey’s copies of De formato foetu and De ovi et pulli are heavily underscored and annotated, and there is a close correspondence between these markings and the passages he discusses. At the outset of his work, Harvey designates Aristotle as his general and Fabricius as his guide, and indeed, nearly every chapter is constructed around quotations and discussions of their work.38 The Exercitationes is comprised of two main sections, the first treats avian and the latter viviparous generation. On the whole, the order of subtopics follows Fabricius’s treatises. In light of these similarities, the complete absence of illustrations from Harvey’s work is striking. Like his teacher, Harvey begins with historiae of hens and viviparous animals and then deduces the causes of generation. He, too, investigates the parts of chickens and their eggs to study oviparous generation, explaining that they are a convenient model for all birds because their eggs are easily obtained and inexpensive.39 Furthermore, he discusses the same parts of viviparous conceptuses as Fabricius had. There are, however, two noteworthy distinctions between the organisation of their works: (1) Harvey reprimands his teacher for supplying only pictures and not including a written account of the day-to-day development of chicks, and he seeks to rectify the omission by providing a detailed account of his observations.40 (2) He selected one kind of viviparous animal, deer, to serve as a model by which others may be related ‘by way of Analogy’.41 Harvey notes that while it is virtually impossible to access human uteruses, and horses, oxen, goats, and other cattle are prohibitively expensive, the readers who wish to make trial of his claims can investigate dogs, conies, cats 37 This is immediately clear while leafing through the volume. Historians agree that the tavole are the work of several artists, see G. Sterzi (note 2), 33548; L.Premuda (note 2), 1501; U. Stefanutti, Pitture (note 2), 389; Martin Kemp (note 36), 99100, reaches the same conclusion on the basis of differences between the kinds of paper, the consistency of solvent, and the execution of plates*both in the rendering of details as in the quality of representations. He notes that in some images the dark background appears to have been carried out in a hurry with off-hand brushstrokes while other features are outlined with care. Kemp, 100103, speculates about the reason for the striking dark backdrop that characterises most plates and suggests that it creates a sense of three-dimensionality. 38 Harvey (note 1), Preface. On Harvey’s Aristotelianism see James G. Lennox, ‘The Comparative Study of Animal Development: William Harvey’s Aristotelianism’, Problem of Animal Generation, edited Smith, as well as Andrew Cunningham (note 24). A classic treatment of Harvey’s Aristotelianism is Jacques Roger’s Les sciences de la vie dans la pensée française du XVIIIe siècle: La génération des animaux de Descartes à l’Encyclopédie (Paris, 1963), 11221. 39 Harvey (note 1), (1651), 1, (1653), 2, (1981), 21. On Harvey’s studies of avian generation, see my article, ‘Harvey’s and Highmore’s Accounts of Chick Generation’, Early Science and Medicine, 13 (2008), 568614. 40 Harvey (note 1), Preface. In De ovi et pulli, representations of the parts as they appear the first thirteen days of gestation are accompanied by a legend. Unfortunately, the remaining four plates lack such a key. On the unnumbered page facing engr.4, the editor notes that the reader can deduce the remaining parts. In actuality, discerning certain parts is problematic. It is particularly unclear what the illustrations in the second row of engr.4, parts of a 15-day foetus, are meant to represent. 41 Harvey (note 1), (1651), 214, (1653), 3901; (1981), 331. 344 K.J. Ekholm and such. He had the advantage of having Charles I’s deer at his disposal. The king hunted the females during the autumn and winter, during which time they come into oestrus and mate, and Harvey had the opportunity to dissect them daily.42 He supplements his descriptions with observations of many other birds and viviparous animals, but in contrast to Fabricius, his focus is less on the variety of manifestations of a given part than it is on the stages of development. He argues that Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 It is one thing to exhibit the fabrick of a Conception, or Embryo that is now perfected, as Fabricius doth: but another thing, to disclose the generation thereof, and first scheme and rudiments of all . . . We therefore will briefly relate, how the Conception is framed by litle and litle, even from the beginning to the end; that it may thence more likely appear, what we are to conclude concerning the Membranes, and other Appurtenances relating to the Foetus.43 Both differences between the anatomists are characteristic of Harvey’s interest lying more in describing the foetus at regular intervals, while Fabricius forgoes a systematic account of the stages of viviparous development to focus on a given part and its variations among species. Harvey notes that those who have not performed dissections often struggle to understand Aristotle’s anatomical descriptions, and he adamantly urges readers not to rely on books but to take the trouble (as ancient philosophers had) to search by way of ‘several experiments’.44 He goes so far as to argue that it is not only impossible to understand anatomical accounts when one has not seen the parts oneself, but that there is an unavoidable disconnect between objects and drawings of them. Harvey points out that each time an artist sketches a face, the representation will vary somewhat, both from the model and from the other drawings. These distinctions may be so slight that if one looks at them separately, they appear the same, but set side-by-side, the differences are manifest. The reason for this, Harvey explains, is that when the artist beheld the face, ‘each particular by it selfe was clear and distinct’, but once he turns to his canvas, the face is, ‘abstracted in the Phansie, or laid up in the Memory, is presented obscure, and confused: nor is it any longer apprehended as a particular, but as some General and Universal thing’.45 To explain how knowledge of particular objects, which is acquired from sense perception, leads to knowledge of universals, Harvey draws upon Aristotle’s Posterior analytics.46 In a helpful analogy, Aristotle describes a scenario of soldiers fleeing from combat, and he notes that at some point, one of them will come to rest, then another, and so on, until they achieve some degree of order. Our perceptions of particulars are akin to the soldiers in flight: as soon as one stands firm, it serves as the primary universal, and one-by-one the other perceptions come to rest until finally, we have acquired a firm universal or experience.47 Harvey emphasises that although sense perceptions are the source of our knowledge about objects, because our minds form an abstracted notion from a flurry of perceptions, there is a 42 Ibid. (1651), 2178 and 226, (1653), 3967 and 413; (1981), 336 and 350. Ibid. (1651), 279; (1653), 514; (1981), 424. 44 Ibid. (1651) Preface, ‘atque indefessis laboribus varia rerum experimenta inquirentes’; (1653), Preface; (1981) 910. 45 The passage that Harvey quotes from Aristotle’s Analytics is a paraphrase, not an exact quotation, see Harvey (note 1), (1651) and (1653), Preface; (1981) 10. 46 Aristotle, Posterior Analytics II.19, translated by Paolo C. Biondi (Laval, 2004), 99b, 2035. 47 Ibid., 100a,10100b,5. 43 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation 345 difference between our knowledge of objects and objects themselves.48 Therefore, in order to acquire the most accurate knowledge possible, it is necessary to make observations and experiments on a continual basis. Harvey exhorts the readers to make frequent observations and depend upon experience and the senses, lest they, Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Arrive at a floating and nebulous opinion, but never attain to a solid and certain knowledge. Just as it happens to those who see foreign countries and towns or the inward parts of the human body only in drawings or paintings, and make for themselves a false representation of the reality.49 He explains that he has written his book not only to put forth his observations, but also to reveal his method ‘of searching into things’, so that studious men may follow a surer path to attaining knowledge.50 He describes dissections and vivisections of chicks whose parts became visible through a magnifying glass.51 Another technique he suggests in order to see the nascent parts more clearly is to place the foetus into a silver basin containing water.52 Presumably, the light reflected by the bowl, the magnification of the water, and the foetus’ ability to float freely as it did in its membranes, provide an excellent set-up for making observations. In addition to observations, he performed simple experiments. He found the cervix so tightly closed that he could not introduce a probe or bristle, and like Fabricius, he concluded that it must therefore, not admit semen.53 Harvey did not, however, limit himself to ocular inspections. He was a particularly enthusiastic and adventurous connoisseur of reproductive and foetal parts. Following the description of the infundibulum, he notes that in young hens and those past laying eggs, the structure diminishes into thin membranes; where the ovary once was there only remains a spongy substance that tastes sweet when boiled.54 He also tasted the yolks of boiled chick foetuses at various stages of incubation, and he found that the liquid contained in the folds of the womb not only resembles the appearance but also the taste of egg white.55 Likewise, he explains that as honeycombs are full of honey, cotyledons are tiny cells [cellulas] that are filled with a substance that has the same consistency, colour and taste as egg white.56 He found that the clear water in the double stomach of ungulates is similar in colour, smell, taste, and consistency to their amniotic fluid.57 Thankfully, as he notes after tasting 48 Harvey (note 1), (1651) and (1653), Preface; (1981) 12. Harvey (note 1), (1651), Preface, ‘Secus si feceris, opinionem quidem tumidam, & fluctuantem acquires; solidam autem, ceramque scientiam non assequeris. Quemadmodum iis usu venit, qui in sculptis pictisve tabulis, longinquas terras, atque urbes, vel corporis humani partes interiors, sub falsâ imagine intuentur’. For this passage I quote the 1981 translation, 13, which in this instance is closer to the Latin than the 1653 translation. The latter renders the passage, ‘As it happeneth to those, who see forraign countries only in Mapps, and the bowels of men falsly described in Anatomical tables. And hence it comes about, that in this rank age, we have many Sophisters, and Bookwrights; but few wise men, and Philosophers’. 50 Ibid. (1651), 47; (1653), 85; (1981), 92. 51 Ibid. (1651), 62, 239; (1653), 113, 4368; (1981), 116, 3678. 52 Ibid. (1651), 50, 60 and 2324; (1653), 90, 109 and 4238; (1981), 97, 112 and 35961. 53 Ibid. (1651), 29, 401; (1653), 16, 401; (1981), 467, 3401, cf. note 26. 54 Ibid. (1651), 24; (1653), 42; (1981), 57. 55 Ibid. (1651), 25; (1653), 44; (1981), 59. 56 Ibid. (1651), 240, 287; (1653), 4389, 52930; (1981), 3689, 435. 57 Ibid. (1651), 243; (1653), 446; (1981), 373. 49 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 346 K.J. Ekholm this same fluid in 10-week-old deer and sheep, it does not have an unpleasant smell or taste, but resembles watery milk.58 In light of Harvey’s scepticism about illustrations, he makes two surprising concessions. As is typical, Harvey describes the nascent foetuses on the second, third, fifth and sixth day of gestation, by means of analogies and suggests techniques to improve observations. What is unexpected is that he concludes these accounts by directly referring readers to specific engravings in Fabricius’s De ovi et pulli.59 The second concession is that he begrudging acknowledges the value of images in the case of new discoveries that lack a name. He warns that using words in an unorthodox sense is bound to cause confusion, while coining new terms would only make readers ‘more afflicted to unriddle the words, then to understand the matter’.60 Harvey speculates that Fabricius provided images for this very reason. This comment is somewhat surprising in light of the fact that Fabricius coined several terms that Harvey adopts, including ‘ovarium’ and ‘infundibulum’. The latter is, as the name suggests, a funnel or trumpet-shaped passage between the ovary and reproductive tract. In Harvey’s historia of the hen he asks rhetorically, ‘Do you desire an Illustration of this matter?’ and then proceeds, ‘fashion in your minde a very slender plant, whose knobby roots may represent the cluster of yolks, and its trunk the litle vaginal, or sheath-like pipe’. Just as Harvey is intent on describing stages of development, he is interested in changes in parts over time, and carries the tree analogy further to explain that ‘as the stalks of that herb do in the winter dye, and vanish away; so, in like manner, when the Hen ceaseth to lay any more egges’ the ovary and infundibulum dry up ‘leaving onely the fundamentum remaining, and some tracks and footsteps of their roots’.61 When it comes to relating his day-to-day observations of chick and deer foetuses, Harvey relies heavily on analogies with common objects that readers can easily call to mind. It is somewhat puzzling therefore, that in his discussion of the limitations of language, he contends that if one should try to explain the newly discovered parts per metaphoras, the reader would not be able to understand parts that he had not seen. In spite of this expressed concern, his primary method of representing anatomical parts to his reader is by comparing them to well-known objects. In the third report on the incubating egg, he notes that a spot on the surface of the yolk, which had been the size of a lentil, had increased to the size of a fingernail of the ring or even middle finger. He also describes it as resembling an eye in respect to its protuberance, magnitude, transparency, and the clear liquid it contains. In the same passage, he compares the foetal vessels to the veins of leaves which proceed from a single stalk and spread across its surface.62 By the fifth day, the first rudiments of the body are visible and have the shape and size of a white maggot.63 Harvey notes that dogs, horses, deer, oxen, snakes, and even man initially share in this resemblance.64 The solitary blood vessel in the maggot-like creature can initially be seen as through a 58 Ibid. (1651), 235; (1653), 429; (1981), 362. Ibid. (1651), 50 and 60; (1653), 90 and 109; (1981), 97 and 112. Curiously, he never references the viviparous plates. 60 Ibid. (1651), Preface, (1653), Preface; (1981), 19. 61 Ibid. (1651), 8; (1653), 15; (1981), 35. 62 Ibid. (1651), 92; (1653), 93; (1981), 99. 63 Ibid. (1651), 56; (1653), 101; (1981), 107. 64 Ibid. (1651), 61; (1653), 110; (1981), 113. 59 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation 347 cloud, and its spine resembles the keel of a ship.65 Over the course of the foetus’s development, he conjures up many more analogies to relate its structure and motions: the chick’s feet and wings bud forth like tadpoles’ limbs at the end of June;66 the milky-white lines that develop into bones resemble the slender threads of cobweb dispersed throughout pulp of the body;67 the liver grows from the umbilical veins like mushrooms out of trees, and it assumes the form of clusters of grapes or grain on stalks.68 Finally, just before hatching, the yolk is drawn into the chick’s belly, which ‘shut[s] them up like a purse, where the strings are drawn together’, and thus takes on the appearance of an intestinal hernia or distended scrotum.69 Similarly, he uses multiple metaphors and descriptions to convey different characteristics of the carnea substantia, including their shape, colour, size, and texture, and changes in these structures during gestation. Following the rutting of deer in September, Harvey provides fortnightly accounts of changes in their carunculae, uteri, and foetuses. He describes the carunculae as resembling the haunch bone that encompasses the head of the femur, or small bowls used to hold vinegar. Immediately following coition, he notes, some carunculae are whiter while others are more ruddy; the largest ones have the breadth of a thick finger. By the beginning of December they grow to the size of walnuts, and by the end of the month, they are as large as mushrooms.70 He uses particularly striking metaphors to describe the texture of the uterus and carunculae around the end of October or early November. During this time, the inside of uterus continues to swell, so that the sides now seemed to touch one another, and glewed as it were together, leaving no space vacant between them. For as licorish Boyes (while they plunder the honey-combs, that they may greedily devour the honey) have their Lips so stung by the Bees, that they swell and grow tumerous, and so streighten the gap of their Mouths; in the same manner doth the interiour superficies of the Does Uterus become turgid, and a most soft and pulpous substance (like that of the Braine) doth fill the cavity, and involve the Caruncles in it. And as for the Caruncles themselves, they are no bigger then they were before, but only appear something paler, and as it were macerated or stewed in warm water, as the Nurses nipple look presently after the Childe hath had the breast. But I could not squeeze out any blood from them, as before. This interiour superficies of the Uterus being thus swolne; it is at that time so tender and smooth, as nothing can be more. It resembles the softness of the brain it self, and when you touch it, did not your own eyes give evidence to that touch, you would not believe your fingers were upon it. The cavity of the Womb being laied open immediately after the killing of the Deere, I have often discovered a slow waving motion, (such a one as is seen in the bottom of a creeping Snailes belly) as if the Womb were Animal in 65 Ibid. (1651), 61; (1653), 111; (1981), 113. Ibid. (1651), 61; (1653), 111; (1981), 115. 67 Ibid. (1651), 62; (1653), 113; (1981), 116. 68 Ibid. 69 Ibid. (1651), 68; (1653), 123; (1981), 124. 70 Ibid. (1651), 281, 2878, 225, 240; (1653), 517, 52931, 411, 430; (1981), 4267, 4356, 349, 367. Harvey notes the etymologies of ‘cotyledon’ and ‘acetabula’, respectively Greek for cup and Latin for vinegar dish. He explicitly disagrees with Aristotle’s claim, in Historia animalium, VII, 8, 586b 1112, that the cotyledons diminish in size as the foetus grows. On (1651), 235; (1653), 42930; (1981), 3623, he also compares the wombs of hind and ewe and describes the latter as embossed with an infinite number of carunculae that resemble crabs’ eyes or hanging warts. 66 348 K.J. Ekholm Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Animali, one living creature in another; and had a peculiar independent motion of its own. Such a kind of motion as this, I have (as I mentioned but now) often observed in the intestines of creatures dissected alive: & the same may be experimented both by the testimony of the sight and touch, in live Dogs and Conies, though you dissect them not. I have likewise observed the same kind of motion, in the Testicles and Scrotum of the Males.71 By evoking images of common experiences, such as bee-stung lips and nipples swollen from a child’s nursing, Harvey provides an exceptionally vivid impression of textures. The reader acquires a sense of the boys’ puffed up and taut skin that would be lost in a drawing or engraving of the uterine walls. Furthermore, his rich analogies provide a means to describe motion as opposed to still structures: by enumerating other experiences of similar motions, he conveys a sense of what he felt when he placed his hand on the foetal deer. Similarly, the analogies of tadpole limbs budding and of purse strings being drawn form mental images of processes. While Harvey’s metaphors evoke vivid sensations in the imagination, both imagistic and non-visual, in the end it is unclear why they should not be subject to the same critique as he presents of anatomical illustrations in the preface. 4. Conclusion I have examined Fabricius’s and Harvey’s methods of investigating generation, their selection of subjects to study and represent, and their modes of describing their observations. Comparing the two anatomists’ studies highlights their respective interests. Harvey focused on changes over time of a given part, both of foetuses and of female reproductive parts. In Fabricius’s treatise on the formation of chicks, he provides detailed figures of his observations of their daily development, but his written account is very brief. In his work on the formed foetus, which is where he treats viviparous generation, he considers different manifestations of a given structure in different animals (both of different individuals of the same species and of different species). The engravings are of exceptional quality. The artists’ skill together with the large format of the pages allows for detailed depictions. Moreover, the labelled parts with keys enable readers to clearly identify and compare the reproductive and foetal parts of a broad range of animals. They are useful in several respects: they enable readers who do not have access to animals understand the structure of the parts; they help those in the process of dissections to identify parts; and they are a means of refreshing one’s memory once the scalpel has been put away. Fabricius’s paintings convey marvel-inducing texture that is not to be found in engravings. Through gradations in the colour tone and the thickness of the application of paint, Fabricius’s artists could clearly depict texture, the position of parts in respect to membranes, fine structures such as vessels, and varying degrees of distension and tautness of parts. These qualities are particularly useful in helping a viewer who does not have access to actual specimens understand the images and verbal descriptions. While the engravings are less effective in conveying these particular qualities, they are admirable in their own right. Their advantages lie in being more easily reproducible, more standardised, and less costly than paintings. Moreover, they serve as keys to the 71 Ibid. (1651), 227; (1653), 4145; (1981), 3512. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation 349 mostly unlabelled, naturalistic plates.72 His dedication to De visione, voce, auditu and his will reveal that he intended the engravings and paintings to be viewed side-by-side and they serve complementary purposes. It is not uncommon to find anatomy and natural history books from this period in which printed illustrations have been coloured in. Sachiko Kusukawa notes that Gessner’s printer offered copies of the Historia animalium which, for a considerable price, were coloured after an exemplar. There are significant differences between such examples and Fabricius’s images. The coloured plates are not prints that have been coloured in, but free-hand paintings from life. Furthermore, by depositing them in the Marciana, Fabricius makes clear that he was eager that the public have access to both formats.73 Fabricius’s images are of stellar quality, but Harvey also puts his finger on a genuine problem concerning the generation of representations. At the same time, the necessary mediation of anatomists and artists is very useful. Their decisions about which animals and parts to depict and how to do so provides a window onto their aims and values. Harvey is a master of employing striking analogies by means of which he relates qualities that would be difficult to represent with prints, most notably motion, taste and texture. These analogies are, however, also problematic on several levels. A particularly glaring issue is that most of the analogies serve to conjure up images that are open to his Aristotle-based critique of pictures. Furthermore, metaphors are good at describing the appearance or motions of parts, but not their relation with respect to other parts, as is possible in illustrations. In the preface he also expresses concern over anatomists naming newly discovered parts: both the use of known terms in an unorthodox sense and the coining of new ones are likely to cause confusion. In essence, however, his analogies are similar to Fallopius’s, Columbus’s, and Fabricius’s selection of names, which tended to be derived from common objects that resemble certain anatomical parts (tubas, pancakes, funnels, etc.). Harvey calls attention to these challenges to creating representations, and emphasises that the aim of his book is not to report his observations as much as it is to describe his techniques of investigation so that readers may follow his example. Yet in the end, like his teacher, Harvey used multiple modes of representation, despite their respective shortcomings, to relate his observations. This triangulation of Harvey’s and Fabricius’s use of coloured paintings, engravings, and verbal accounts sheds light on the qualities that each format conveys and where its limitations lie. I hope to have provided a richer appreciation of philosophical, artistic, and technical challenges in early seventeenth-century creation 72 For the few exceptions, see note 14. Siraisi (note 24), 71, argues that Fabricius’s project was only possible in its Paduan context and shares some characteristics with much of scientific culture of the period, including aspirations to create encyclopedic works on various aspects of nature; the reprocessing of scientific heritage of antiquity; empirical understanding (as seen in details of observations and descriptions of particulars); elements of competition within the scientific community (Fabricius explains why his work surpasses all others); innovations in the use of scientific illustrations. She shows ways in which these characteristics of the intellectual and scientific ambiance were manifest in Fabricius’s work. A further interesting point she makes is that Fabricius’s painted plates included in the printed books is both the work of a pioneer and in a certain respect, recalls also the survival and adaptation of the practices of manuscript culture in the course of the first century and a half of printing. For a broader discussion of anatomical illustrations in this period, see Martin Kemp, ‘‘‘The mark of truth’’: looking and learning in some anatomical illustrations from the Renaissance and eighteenth century’, in Medicine and the Five Senses, edited by William F. Bynum and Roy Porter (Cambridge, 1993), 85121. 73 350 K.J. Ekholm Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 of anatomical images and of Harvey’s and Fabricius’s aims in their investigation and representation of animal generation. 5. Appendix: Coloured woodblock prints in Aselli’s De lactibus Fabricius’s plates appear to be the first naturalistic paintings of the internal parts of animals. During the sixteenth-century natural historians, most famously Ulysses Aldrovandi, commissioned accurate coloured depictions of plants and insects. However, the style, the subject, the large scale, and the black backgrounds that are reminiscent of his contemporary Caravaggio are original to Fabricius. Although later anatomists do not appear to have copied the style of the paintings, it is possible that his tables might have served as an inspiration for the first coloured prints of anatomical parts. Aselli’s thin volume, De lactibus sive lacteis venis (Milan, 1627), includes four folio-size chiaroscuro prints of the canine lacteal vessels, liver, and mesentery, surrounded by a black background.74 Chiaroscuro prints consist of several superimposed prints of different colours, often used to create the illusion of three-dimensionality. The first woodcut applies a surface of ink, in this case black, leaving white spaces that serve as highlights. Further blocks add shadows or details in other colours, here beige, then red (Figure 8). Eighteen folio-size sheets of Aselli’s images at various stages of production* ranging from preliminary sketches (Figure 8a) to incomplete prints with only the initial layer or two of paint (Figure 8b) to completed exemplars (Figure 8c)*are bound with the colour copy of De formato foetu in Philadelphia. The binding appears to be contemporary and although it is not uncommon for unrelated books to have been bound together, there may be a link between the painted and printed plates in this volume. The volume may have belonged to one of the two physicians who saw De lactibus through the press. In De lactibus, Aselli describes the circumstances surrounding his fortuitous discovery of the lacteal vessels while vivisecting a dog. Among the witnesses of the experiment were his friends, the physicians Alessandro Tadino, Senatore Settala and his father, Ludovico, in whose home in Milan the vivisection took place.75 Aselli died before the publication of his book, which Tadino and Senatore Settala saw through the press.76 Relatively little is known about either of these men, or about 74 This method of printing, chiaroscuro woodcuts, developed in the early sixteenth century in German and Italian regions. See Adam Barsch, Le peintre graveur, 21 vols (Vienna, 18031821), XII; T.A. Riggs, Italian Chiaroscuro Woodcuts of the 16th and 17th Centuries, exhibition catalogue of the Worchester Art Museum, 1974. Michael Matile, Italienische Holzschnitte der Renaissance und des Barock (Basle, 2003), 134. While in German prints an outline was often superimposed on the surfaces, Italian chiaroscuro prints work primarily with surfaces, which create a more painterly affect. 75 Aselli (note 12) chapter 9, names the witnesses, but not the location. It was in a letter from Ludovico Settala to Pompeo Caimo, written in September 1627 that he relates that the vivisection was carried out in his home. The letter is reproduced in Silvia Rota Ghibaudi, Ricerche su Ludovido Settala: biografia, bibliografia, iconografia e documenti (Florence, 1959), 22. This volume provides the most substantial biographical account of Ludovico. Brief biographical sketches of Tadino, of both Settalas (also Septalius) and lists of their publications are found in Nicholas F.J. Eloy, Vol. 4, Dictionnaire historique de la medecine ancienne et moderne (Paris, 1778), 356, 2513. 76 H.P. Bayon, ‘William Harvey, physician and biologist: his precursors, opponents and successors’, part 5, Annals of Science 4 (1940) 32889, 370, claims that Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc provided the funds for the printing of De lactibus, and is cited by Roger French William Harvey’s natural philosophy, (Cambridge, 1994), 179. Neither provides a source for this claim, which is contradicted by Pierre Gassendi, The Mirrour of True Nobility and Gentility, being the Life of the Renowned Nicolas Peiresc (15801637) (London, 1657), 289, who describes Peiresc’s learning about Aselli’s book in 1628. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 Chiaroscuro print of a canine liver from Aselli’s De lactibus, including a preliminary drawing (a), a print in which the block inked in red is mistakenly inverted (b), and a complete print (c). Courtesy of the College of Physicians, Philadelphia. Fabricius’s and Harvey’s representations of animal generation Figure 8. 351 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 09:02 8 December 2010 352 K.J. Ekholm Aselli.77 Tadino, Aselli, and Ludovico Settala received medical degrees from Pavia, but until Antonio Favaro’s discovery of two letters written by Senatore, all that was known of his early years was that he was received into the college of physicians in Milan in 1616. These letters establish a connection between Fabricius and the younger Settala.78 Senatore wrote the letters to his father from Padua, where he appears to have been studying. In a letter dated December 1613, he relates that he plans to visit Fabricius. He explains that even though the professor has retired, he still discourses enthusiastically with students. Moreover, it appears that even though Tadino received his degree from Pavia in 1603, he had previously studied at Padua.79 Both Tadino and Senatore Settala were therefore in a position to have known about Fabricius’s coloured plates. Moreover, the plates themselves are suggestive of a link*not only are they rare examples of coloured anatomical paintings and prints of the period, but they share the characteristic large format and black background. The coloured prints are unique to the first edition of De lactibus and were replaced with smaller black and white prints in later editions. This suggests that the sketches of the dog’s liver and mesentery and the prints of various stages of the chiaroscuro prints were created in the production of the original prints. It seems possible that either Tadino or Settala brought this copy of Fabricius’s plates to Milan where it provided inspiration for their coloured prints, and it is my hope that future research will shed more light on whether there is a link between these sets of coloured anatomical images. Acknowledgements I wish to thank Ed Bernstein, Nico Bertoloni Meli, Ann Carmichael, Sarah Cohen, Sandi Ekholm, Sandy Gliboff, Anita Guerrini, Melina Hoggard, Sashiko Kusukawa, Jutta Schickore, the members of the Indiana University history of medicine reading group for their insightful comments on the images and earlier drafts of this paper. I also greatly appreciate Sandy Gliboff making it possible for me to carry out dissections of gravid pig and sheep uteruses and foetuses, which gave me a clearer understanding both of the anatomical parts and of the challenges anatomists faced. Funding was provided by the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Sciences Visiting Dissertation Fellowship, the Ferenc Gyorgyey Research Travel Award in the History of Medicine from the Medical Historical Library at Yale University, and the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant for Overseas Research 0823258. 77 V. Ducceschi, ‘I manoscritti di Gaspare Aselli (15811625)’, Archivio di Storia della Scienza 20 (1922), 12534, 125. Tadino’s and the Settalas’ names are primarily associated with their service on the Tribunal of Health during the 1630s plague in Milan*Alessandro Manzoni discusses Tadino and both Settalas in his historical novel The Betrothed, chapters 2833. The English translation by Fr Kenelm Foster, edited by David Forgacs and Matthew Reynolds (London, 1997), 436, mistakenly describes Lodovico Settala as having been a professor of medicine at Padua, Manzoni correctly has Pavia. 78 Antonio Favaro ‘Per la storia dello Studio di Padova: due lettere inedite di Senatore Settala’, Bolletino di Museo civico di Padova, 16 (1913), 10010. 79 Luigi Belloni. ‘La medicina a Milano sino al Seicento’. In Storia di Milano, volume 11, part 12, edited by Pietro Verri (Milan, 1962), (63541, 637), references E.Ferrario, ‘La vita di Alessandro Tadino, medico Milanese’, Gazzetta medica Italiano (1857), 197203, 20510, 2137, 2215, 22937.