Why did medieval universities avoid human dissection even while teaching medicine?
For centuries, medieval universities banned human dissection, forcing medical students to study anatomy from flawed ancient texts.
Religious and cultural taboos often prohibited the study of human corpses. Instead of direct observation, doctors relied on the works of the Greek physician Galen. However, Galen's theories were based on animal dissections, leading to centuries of medical errors. Hands-on human anatomy only became standard during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Nerd Mode
For over 1,300 years, Western medicine was dominated by the teachings of Claudius Galen, a Roman physician who lived from 129 to 216 AD. Because Roman law forbade human dissection, Galen performed his research on pigs and Barbary macaques. He incorrectly assumed that human internal structures were identical to those of these animals, leading to major errors regarding the liver, heart, and skeletal system.During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church generally discouraged the desecration of the human body, though no formal papal bull explicitly banned dissection for science until Pope Boniface VIII issued 'De Sepulturis' in 1299. While this decree was actually intended to stop the boiling of crusaders' bones for transport, many universities interpreted it as a broad prohibition. Consequently, medical students at prestigious institutions like the University of Paris primarily studied anatomy by reading aloud from Galen's texts.The shift toward modern anatomy began at the University of Bologna around 1315, when Mondino de Luzzi performed the first recorded public human dissection. However, it was not until 1543, with the publication of 'De humani corporis fabrica' by Andreas Vesalius, that Galen's errors were systematically corrected. Vesalius used direct observation to prove that humans do not have a multi-lobed liver or a porous heart septum, effectively launching the modern era of medical science.
Verified Fact
FP-0004223 · Feb 18, 2026