At the end of the 1500s, Palazzo del Bo offered the spectacle of dissection of a corpse that could be viewed by the entire university.

It could take a full week, attracting students, professors of all disciplines, high-ranking prelates, politicians, public figures. There was even an orchestra that usually played from the top floor of the Anatomical Theatre.

In the previous century, autopsies in Padua were already taking place in temporary theatres, in which a demonstrator dissected the corpse, while an ostensor pointed out the parts to the students. At that time, the anatomy professor simply read out classical texts, in particular the writings of the Greek physician Galen.

It was the Belgian Andries van Wesel, a professor at Padua from 1537 to 1542, who combined the figures of professor, demonstrator and ostensor, questioning the ancient texts and promoting a demonstrative method. Practical study of anatomy soon became the norm in the University of Padua.

The Anatomical Theatre was built in 1594, entirely in walnut, and is the oldest stable structure of this type in the world still in existence.

It has the shape of an inverted cone distributed on several concentric levels, gradually widening from the bottom up, with seating for two hundred and fifty people.

German art historian Roland Krischel recently advanced the theory that the structure was intended as a three-dimensional representation of Dante’s Hell. Indeed, in Galileo’s two lessons on the “shape, site and size of Dante’s hell”, the scientist wrote “This huge cavern is then divided into eight levels, each differing from each other for greater or lesser distance from the centre, so that Hell comes to resemble a huge amphitheatre, which narrows from level to level as it descends.” According to Krischel, these words confirm his theory and suggest that Galileo, who was employed at the university at that time, was involved in the design of the Anatomical Theatre.

Hell or not, we known for certain that the two corpses a year made available to the university by the Venetian state were those of criminals executed in nearby Piazza del Capitaniàto. The bodies were taken to Palazzo Bo by the ancient canals, now interred, and prepared in the room adjacent to the theatre, called the “Cucina Anatòmica”.

In the mid-nineteenth century the room was converted into a small museum but the name for its original use is still over the door accessing the adjacent Anatomical Theatre: Mors ubi gaudet succurrere vitae: this is where death rejoices in helping life.