Fifteenth Century
The first to investigate anatomy through dissection was Mondino de Cuzzi (1275-1326) of Bolognia when he dissected a human cadaver in about 1315, this famous lesson now a landmark in the history of medicine.
Fasciculus Medicinae (1493) by Johannes de Ketham
Johannes de Ketham illustrated Mondino's first dissection in Fasciculus Medicinae (1493), and thereby became the author of the first anatomic illustration ever to appear in print. The gentleman sitting in the chair at the center of the woodcut orchestrated the procedure while he read from one of Galen’s anatomic texts. This illustration is believed to be the origin of the term “chairman of the department”, and the actual dissection would not have been done by the physician himself, but rather by an assistant.
dissection performed by Mondino de Cuzzi in Bologna in 1318 by Ernest Board (late 19th century)
a later depiction of that first dissection