Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- 1 Introduction: Understanding Eighteenth-Century Leiden Anatomy / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- 2 Elegant Anatomy: Aesthesis / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- 3 Quicksilver Anatomy: Exploring the Lymphatic System with Mercury / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- 4 Hands, Lace and Plants: Meaningful Embellishments / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- 5 Beautiful Monsters: How Deformity Can Be Elegant / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- 6 Colonial Bodies: Collecting the Exotic Other / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- 7 Back to the Bone: The End of Aesthesis / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- 8 Conclusion: Aesthesis and the Future of Historical Anatomical Collections / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- Bibliography / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- Index / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen -- Abstracts and Keywords / Marieke M. A. Hendriksen.

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In Elegant Anatomy Marieke Hendriksen offers an account of the material culture of the eighteenth-century Leiden anatomical collections, which have not been studied in detail before. The author introduces the novel analytical concept of aesthesis, as these historical medical collections may seem strange, and undeniably have a morbid aesthetic, yet are neither curiosities nor art. As this book deals with issues related to the keeping and displaying of historical human remains, it is highly relevant for material culture and museum studies, cultural history, the history of scientific collections and the history of medicine alike. Unlike existing literature on historical anatomical collections, this book takes the objects in the collections as its starting point, instead of the people that created them.