There was little or no progress in the knowledge of anatomy between the death of Mondino in 1327 and the sixteenth century. This appears the more remarkable when we recall how widespread was the practice of dissection during the period. In France, at the University of Montpellier, public dissections were decreed in the year 1377,[121] and Catalonian Lerida followed suit in 1391.[122] At Bologna, where dissection had long been customary, it received official recognition in the University Statutes in 1405,[123] and the same event took place at Padua in 1429. Public anatomies were instituted at the University of Prague in 1460, of Paris in 1478, and of Tübingen in 1485.[124] For these ‘Anatomies’ the bodies of executed criminals were usually employed, and therefore the number of subjects available varied greatly in different localities.[125] In addition to these regular dissections, there was certainly a considerable amount of post-mortem examination, surreptitious (Plate XXVIII_b_[126]), or even open (Plate XXIX[127]), long before Benivieni published his memorable list of cases.[128] [Illustration: Fig. 1. From the French translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Lyons, 1482. The first printed picture of dissection.] [Illustration: MS. fr. 184 fo. 14 r Plate XXIX. A POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION. Late XIVth Century] [Illustration: VATICAN MS. HISPANICE 4804 fo. 8 r Plate XXX a. A DEMONSTRATION OF SURFACE MARKINGS] [Illustration: BRISTOL REFERENCE LIBRARY MS. fo. 25 r Plate XXX b. A DEMONSTRATION OF THE BONES TO ILLUSTRATE GUY DE CHAULIAC] That so much industry was rewarded by so small an increase in knowledge may probably be attributed to the method adopted. The so-called ‘anatomies’ were conducted in the most formal manner. Bertuccio, for example, who succeeded Mondino as professor of Surgery at Bologna, was accustomed, as we learn from his pupil Guy de Chauliac, to give short systematic anatomical demonstrations on a fixed and rigid method.[129] The occupant of the chair at this period was indeed no professor in the modern sense of the word. To expound the tradition of anatomy as it had reached him was regarded as the limit of his duty. Of any attempt to extend the bounds of knowledge, of any systematic endeavour to correct or improve the anatomical views of his predecessors, we find little or no trace. Indeed, at Padua it was expressly laid down in the statutes that the exposition of anatomy should follow the very words of Mondino.[130] Early figures portraying the teaching of anatomy (Plate XXVII and Figs. 1-3, 5) usually show us a medical doctor sitting at a desk, well removed from the subject of dissection, and reading from his text-book the description of the part. Meanwhile an assistant, who is usually also a doctor, performs the actual work of dissection. The professor of Surgery, to whom the teaching of anatomy was entrusted, stands by with a pointer to indicate the different organs.