Anatomy and Bodies: Dead Bodies in Museums from Van Ruysch a Von Hagens

Abstract

The aim of the conference of which we are here publishing the proceedings, held in Rome at Sapienza-University in 2013, was to valorise the specific museological heritage of Italian Universities, in relation to analogous European and non-European Museums of Anatomy and Pathological Anatomy. A particular attention has been devoted to highlight the history of the origins and evolution of specific museological collections in order to focus reasons and circumstances of their foundation through the analysis of the significances, functions and uses of anatomical parts or artifacts in different cultural contexts.