ABSTRACT
The margins, extremities and contours of the human body are of central importance in two phenomena regarded as characteristic of early modern European history: the dramatic public executions, which had their heyday during the period 1450-1800, and the equally spectacular public dissections, which flourished in many European countries from the fifteenth to the late seventeenth century. This essay investigates the similarities between the two while at the same time examining the pertinence of such a comparison.
