ABSTRACT
The most fundamental thing that the anatomical projects of these three anatomists had in common, was that they were all following the Mundinus paradigm of seeing and demarcating the body. And, as the titles of de Zerbis's and Benedictus's books indicate, they take the human body as their subject, while Berengarius does so implicitly in his title by announcing that his book is based on that of Mundinus. All of these anatomists use the term 'anatomy' to cover how the body works as well as how it is structured (and how it is to be dissected). All of these works were meant, or could be used, to accompany a public dissection of the human body. De Zerbis, following the Mundinus order, divides his writing into textus sections to be read as the relevant part of the body is displayed in dissection, and into additiones which pursue matters further, and were designed to be read at leisure. Benedictus's book presents a fanciful demonstration he is giving to his friends, but it could certainly have been read to accompany a dissection if anyone had wanted to do so, and that demonstration would have been in the Mundinus order. Berengarius follows the Mundinus order remorselessly (though one doubts whether so much text could actually have been read at a public dissection before the body had completely rotted away), and the observables as we have met them in Mundinus are faithfully, indeed doggedly, followed through for every part. De Zerbis employs enormous typographical pointers for each of the observables, lest his reader be left in the slightest doubt (see Figure 3.1); Berengarius not only pursues the observables rigorously, but also points out where Mundinus was doing so.
