History of Science and Technology Colloquium

The seventeenth century witnessed the emergence of new methods of anatomical investigation, such as microscopy, and the unprecedented refinement of others, such as vascular injections. With the notable exception of William Harvey's work, however, vivisection has not attracted much attention by historians, possibly because it was perceived as an ancient technique already familiar to Galen and even earlier sources.

In this presentation I shall argue that in the seventeenth century vivisection was a major technique of investigation and that, despite its antiquity, it was used with remarkable creativity and originality. Starting from the works by Harvey and Gasparo Aselli, I discuss a number of cases highlighting the surprising and remarkable achievements of anatomists such as Jean Pecquet, Marcello Malpighi, Reinier de Graaf, Richard Lower, and Anton Nuck.

More broadly, I shall argue that vivisection was a complex--and in many ways problematic--experimental technique requiring extensive anatomical knowledge, manual dexterity, and sophisticated conceptualizations. Thus my presentation challenges the traditional picture of seventeenth-century experimentation as primarily focused on the physical-mathematical disciplines, calling for a more comprehensive account encompassing the medical-anatomical disciplines as well.