An anatomical theatre was an institution used in teaching anatomy at early modern universities.
The theatre was usually a room of roughly amphitheatrical shape, in the centre of which would stand the table on which the dissections of human or animal bodies took place. Around this table were several circular, elliptic or octagonal tiers with railings, where students or other observers could stand and get a good view of the dissection almost from above and unencumbered by the spectators in the rows in front. It was common to display skeletons at some place in the theatre; in Leiden, 17th century depictions show that the living observers were actually accompanied in the rows by a large number of animal and human skeletons, some of which held banners with inscriptions such as Memento mori, or, freely translated, "Remember, you will die".
The first anatomical theatre was built at the University of Padua in 1594 and is still preserved. Other early examples include the Theatrum Anatomicum of Leiden University, built in 1596 and reconstructed in 1988, and the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio in Bologna (whose building dates from 1563 and the anatomical theatre from 1637).
The anatomical theatre completed in 1663 by medical professor and amateur architect Olaus Rudbeck for the University of Uppsala is located in the idiosyncratic cupola which Rudbeck placed on top of the Gustavianum building, at the time the main building of the university. Rudbeck had spent time in Leiden, and both the anatomical theatre and the botanical garden he founded in Uppsala in 1655 were influenced by his experiences there.
Thomas Jefferson built an anatomical theatre for the University of Virginia. It was completed in 1827 but demolished in 1938 to leave place for a new library building.
The room was built in 1594 and was used to teach anatomy by way of human dissections. these would take place on the table in the centre of the room as students looked on from the many circular balconies which were arranged steeply to avoid the kind of headblock annoyance regularly experienced by cinema-goers. it's a uniquely beautiful and faintly creepy room.
The anatomical theatre at Leiden University in the early 17th century
Anatomical theatre in the Archiginnasio (University of Bologna) dated 1637
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