As The Teacher Watches

Professors Chair in Teatro Anatomico

Students from all over Europe came to study at Bologna's University. A popular attraction was this very room, Teatro Anatomico. Two sculptures called scannati (skinned bodies) support a canopy over the professor's chair. Here, the professor directed his best student in the dissection of human bodies! The professor never actually touched the corpse, but instead, had a long baton to point at what was supposed to be done. The room was lined with intricately carved wood so that the smell would be lessened. The only marble located in the room was atop the dissection table. From an above window, a papal emissary would watch the procedures to make sure that the brain and the heart (considered sacred by the church) were never touched by a knife. This university was also well known for its admission to female students (the most in Europe).