Wound Man


The Wound Man is a surgical diagram which first appeared in European medical manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The illustration acted as an annotated table of contents to guide the reader through various injuries and diseases whose related cures could be found on the text's nearby pages. The image first appeared in a printed book in 1491 when it was included in the Venetian Fasciculus medicinae, likely Europe's first printed medical miscellany. Thereafter it circulated widely in printed books until well into the seventeenth century. The Wound Man has since become a recognisable figure in popular culture.

Description

The Wound Man illustrates various injuries that a person might receive through war, accident, or disease: cuts and bruises from multiple weapons, rashes and pustules, thorn scratches, and the bites of venomous animals. The figure also includes some schematic anatomical outlines of several organs within his unusual, transparent abdomen.
In earlier manuscript versions, the figure is surrounded by numbers and phrases which indicate where in the accompanying treatise a healer might find a particular helpful procedure. For instance, in now in the Wellcome Library, London, the spider crawling up the man's thigh is labelled Wo eine spynne gesticht, 20'. Turning to the corresponding cure number 14, the reader finds:
Despite these injuries, however, the Wound Man is still depicted as standing defiantly alive. This reaffirms the fact that the figure was not intended as a threatening one: instead it explained and glorified the cures and medical treatments available in the texts that he accompanied.

In popular culture

The Wound Man continues to be referenced in popular culture:
In the 1980 novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, it is mentioned that Will Graham was tipped off to the fact that Hannibal Lecter was a serial killer from this diagram, as Lecter killed his sixth victim in this manner. A further reference to the diagram is made by the character Clarice Starling in the sequel novel Hannibal.
The Wound Man is also referenced in season 1, episode 6 of NBC's Hannibal TV series in 2013, and again visually and by name in season 2, episode 7 of the same show.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine uses a Wound Man as a supporter in its heraldic achievement.
The Wound Man from von Gersdorff's 1519 treatise is used as the cover of The Practical by Stone Franks.