This illustration comes from book of medical knowledge associated with the obscure author Johannes de Ketham. Ketham is best known today for producing the monumental Fasciculus Medicinae, the first printed book to contain anatomical illustrations. Published in 1491, it combines ancient and medieval medical traditions with Renaissance innovations. This drawing depicts a dissection carried out in the contemporary manner. The corpse is laid out on a trestle table disposed across the picture space, and the dissector leans over it with a huge knife; his short garment differentiates him from the other men present, who wear august robes and stand upright. The lecturer presides serenely over the scene from a pulpitlike booth above, looking out at the viewer rather than at the corpse. Johannes de Ketham was a German physician living in Italy at the end of the fifteenth century.