Overview

Visual anatomy books have been a staple of medical practice and study since the mid-sixteenth century. But the visual representation of diseased states followed a very different pattern from anatomy, one we are only now beginning to investigate and understand. With Visualizing Disease, Domenico Bertoloni Meli explores key questions in this domain, opening a new field of inquiry based on the analysis of a rich body of arresting and intellectually challenging images reproduced here both in black and white and in color.   Starting in the Renaissance, Bertoloni Meli delves into the wide range of figures involved in the early study and representation of disease, including not just men of medicine, like anatomists, physicians, surgeons, and pathologists, but also draftsmen and engravers. Pathological preparations proved difficult to preserve and represent, and as Bertoloni Meli takes us through a number of different cases from the Renaissance to the mid-nineteenth century, we gain a new understanding of how knowledge of disease, interactions among medical men and artists, and changes in the technologies of preservation and representation of specimens interacted to slowly bring illustration into the medical world.

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Behind our current interest in making such cellular and bodily transformations attractive and accessible lies a much longer history of pathological illustration, a territory that is ably introduced by Domenico Bertoloni Meli. --Times Higher Education An outstanding feature of the book is the comprehensive account of the medical men, the artists, and their collaboration. Sometimes, the same person fulfilled both roles. The biographical information, a remarkable achievement of academic research, would by itself make the book a unique reference resource. But it is far more, reflecting as it does the changes in concepts of disease, technical advances in preservation of organs and creation of images for publication, and the ambitions and careers of individual doctors and artists. --British Society for the History of Medicine This is an excellent book, based on extraordinarily vast, solid, and innovative research. In his previous books, Bertoloni Meli has already made very important contributions to the history of early modern science and medicine. Visualizing Disease offers an even more significant and original contribution, the first detailed and richly documented history of morbid anatomy illustration from the sixteenthto the ninteenthcentury. --Gianna Pomata, Johns Hopkins University

Behind our current interest in making such cellular and bodily transformations attractive and accessible lies a much longer history of pathological illustration, a territory that is ably introduced by Domenico Bertoloni Meli. --Times Higher Education An outstanding feature of the book is the comprehensive account of the medical men, the artists, and their collaboration. Sometimes, the same person fulfilled both roles. The biographical information, a remarkable achievement of academic research, would by itself make the book a unique reference resource. But it is far more, reflecting as it does the changes in concepts of disease, technical advances in preservation of organs and creation of images for publication, and the ambitions and careers of individual doctors and artists. --British Society for the History of Medicine Bertoloni Meli guides the reader across a large number of exemplary cases, thanks to which we discover that knowledge of disease, the interaction between physicians and artists, and the progress in the technologies of conservation and representation of the preparations, slowly led visualization to become a fundamental tool in medical practice. --Corriere della Sera Bertoloni Meli presents a well-researched, comprehensive treatment of what might be called a historical account of medical disease illustration and its contribution to the advancement of medicine. At first, the only diseased tissues available for study were bones (obtained from cadavers), as they did not undergo change over time. Various kinds of diseased tissues gradually became available from other sources, such as hospitals and the private collections of physicians and others. The use of color in the illustrations increased their usefulness and value, and they soon found a natural home in scientific books and articles. Illustrations of cutaneous diseases provided ideal samples for study of the natural progression of a disease. Multiple examples of early illustrations are found in the text, with the artists themselves identified. Bertoloni Meli has an engaging writing style with a good flow and clear control of his subject matter. Included are 20 pages of notes and a thorough bibliography of 31 pages. Highly recommended. --Choice This is an excellent book, based on extraordinarily vast, solid, and innovative research. In his previous books, Bertoloni Meli has already made very important contributions to the history of early modern science and medicine. Visualizing Disease offers an even more significant and original contribution, the first detailed and richly documented history of morbid anatomy illustration from the sixteenthto the ninteenthcentury. --Gianna Pomata, Johns Hopkins University

An outstanding feature of the book is the comprehensive account of the medical men, the artists, and their collaboration. Sometimes, the same person fulfilled both roles. The biographical information, a remarkable achievement of academic research, would by itself make the book a unique reference resource. But it is far more, reflecting as it does the changes in concepts of disease, technical advances in preservation of organs and creation of images for publication, and the ambitions and careers of individual doctors and artists. --British Society for the History of Medicine Behind our current interest in making such cellular and bodily transformations attractive and accessible lies a much longer history of pathological illustration, a territory that is ably introduced by Domenico Bertoloni Meli. --Times Higher Education Bertoloni Meli guides the reader across a large number of exemplary cases, thanks to which we discover that knowledge of disease, the interaction between physicians and artists, and the progress in the technologies of conservation and representation of the preparations, slowly led visualization to become a fundamental tool in medical practice. --Corriere della Sera This is an excellent book, based on extraordinarily vast, solid, and innovative research. In his previous books, Bertoloni Meli has already made very important contributions to the history of early modern science and medicine. Visualizing Disease offers an even more significant and original contribution, the first detailed and richly documented history of morbid anatomy illustration from the sixteenthto the ninteenthcentury. --Gianna Pomata, Johns Hopkins University

A work that was crying out to be written. Exhaustive, learned, and a gold mine for specialists, yet wholly accessible for nonspecialists. And in a field--anatomical pathology--that's not lent itself easily to graphical exposition, Bertoloni Meli's volume is just gorgeous in its pictorial depiction of changing notions of disease. --Russell Maulitz, MD PhD This is an excellent book, based on extraordinarily vast, solid, and innovative research. In his previous books, Bertoloni Meli has already made very important contributions to the history of early modern science and medicine. Visualizing Disease offers an even more significant and original contribution, the first detailed and richly documented history of morbid anatomy illustration from the sixteenth to the ninteenth century. --Gianna Pomata, Johns Hopkins University

Author Information

Domenico Bertoloni Meli is professor of history and philosophy of science and medicine at Indiana University, Bloomington.

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