The study of the human body has been a prolonged and profound interest in Leonardo, one of the aspects of Nature that has stimulated his obsessive curiosity. For many years, until about 1510, the anatomy of man captured his attention, as evidenced by the many fascinating anatomical tables, more than 240 drawings accompanied by marginal notes and comments. The tables, artistic but precise representation of the observations deriving from corpse dissection, were only preparatory to the correlation of morphology with physiology and pathology.
As evidence of Leonardo’s curiosity we can remember the story told of the “corpse of the old man”: a man of over 100 years who, expelled under the eyes of Leonardo, was dissected to try to understand the secret of longevity; an ante-litteram aging study. His research and the anatomical and functional tables of the heart and blood circulation were also extraordinary, as were his studies on the human foot and on the structure of the brain.
The Leonardo event: The human body was conceived as a collaboration between the Accademia dei Lincei, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. The conference includes conferences by major Italian and foreign personalities, and discussions that, starting from Leonardo’s anatomical tables, will be projected to the pathophysiology and medicine of the twenty-first century to illustrate how his investigation of the natural world has had a global influence. it extends far beyond the aesthetic aspects of marvelous drawings, preparatory to the understanding of the correlations between form and function in the human body.
The Lancet has published a special issue, with articles dedicated to the work and the impact of Leonardo on science and medicine, which will be presented at the Congress.