Engraving by Bartolomeo Eustachi entitled: "Dissection of a cadaver". Title page Tabulae anatomicae quas e tenebris tandem vindicatas, 1714. Interior view of an anatomical theater in which a dissection is in progress; a surgeon is examining the cadaver; several men are sitting, and a few are standing, observing the proceedings. A skeleton stands to the left. An anatomical theater was an institution used in teaching anatomy at early modern universities. The theater was usually a room of roughly amphitheatrical shape, in the centre of which would stand the table on which the dissections of human or animal bodies took place. Around this table were several circular, elliptic or octagonal tiers with railings, where students or other observers could stand and get a good view of the dissection.