Medieval and Renaissance images of the brain and the cerebral ventricles
From a manuscript dated 1347 illustrating Ibn Sina (Avicenna), De generatione embryonis. Just above the skull, from left to right, the cerebral ventricles are labeled "sensus communis" "fantasia", "ymaginativa" and "cogitativa seu estimativa." At the back of the head, the ventricle "memorativa" is labeled. The three compartments of the brain are labeled "cellula" 1, 2 and 3. Behind the eye is visus (vision); below that are olfactus, gustus, and tactus. In front of the throat is written: "Ducantur omnes lineae post angulum oculi, sed non ante versus nasum."
| Reference: Sudhoff, W. (1913) Die Lehre von den Hirnventrikeln in textlicher und graphischer Tradition des Altertums und Mittelalters. Archiv. Fur Geschichte der Medizin VII, 149-205, figure 5. |
All images from this Sudhoff article are reproduced with kind permission of the Institute of the History of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University. Copying or other use of these images is not permitted.