Theatrical anatomy: Duverney in Paris, 1670–1720

During the reign of Louis XIV, anatomical demonstrations became a public attraction in Paris. At the Jardin du Roi, the star performer was Joseph-Guichard Duverney, who attracted hundreds to his anatomy lectures. Simultaneously, Duverney also instructed the Dauphin and his courtiers, lectured to medical students at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital (making off with corpses in the process) and dissected before the Paris Academy of Sciences. Duverney's dramatic, rhetorical and anatomical skills made him the best-known man of science in Louis XIV's Paris.