ABSTRACT
For many years the dissection of corpses for medical teaching in anatomy was dissaproved by church authorities and in most centres the educational material was limited to diagrams. However, in Florence in the eighteenth century the study of anatomy was greatly assisted by the use of wax models, culminating in the work of Clemente Susini (1754–1805) who was famous not only for the amazing number of waxworks he executed during his lifetime, but also for the high standard of his techniques. He was assisted by several first-class anatomists, including Paolo Mascagni (1755–1815) who was a specialist on the lymphatic system and the author of excellent anatomical drawings. There are now over a thousand models on exhibition at La Specola (so called, because in 1780 a telescope was placed on top of the building for astronomical observations and this event stirred the public imagination to such an extent that the whole museum—originally called the Royal and Imperial Museum of Physics and Natural History when it first opened in 1775—was called ‘la Specola’ from specula meaning look-out, observatory). This is the Zoological Museum of Florence University and is to be found in the Via Romana, the old road from Florence to Rome, and is open to the general public on only one half-day per week. The models on display are contained in their original eighteenth-century glass cases and one of the most impressive is a whole life-sized body illustrating the lymphatic system, and known as the skinned man. In addition to the work of Susini there are also some models from the seventeenth century, by the abbé Gaetano Giulio Zummo or Zumbo (1665–1701) who worked for several masters such as the Medici in Florence and Louis XIV in Paris. Only a few examples of his work have survived to the present day, and these include an anatomy of a man’s head.
