Anatomical theatre: a lecturer is standing behind a table with a cadaver on it; both sides of the room are lined with spectators. An anatomical theater was an institution used in teaching anatomy at early modern universities. The theater 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.