Wound Man

From Hans von Gersdorff's Feldtbuch der Wundartzney (Strasburg, 1519).
From Johannes de Ketham's Fasiculo de Medicina (Venice, 1495).

Wound Man is an illustration which first appeared in European surgical texts in the Middle Ages.

Description

It laid out schematically the various wounds a person might suffer in battle or in accidents, often with surrounding or accompanying text stating treatments for the various injuries. It first appeared in print in Johannes de Ketham's Fasciculus Medicinae (Venice, 1492) and was used often in surgical texts throughout the sixteenth century and even into the seventeenth century.

(Probable author Hans von Gersdorff (Fieldbook of Wound Surgery) published in Strasbourg in 1519.)

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 murderer from this diagram, and 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 Hannibal.