Trinity College, MS O.2.44, fol. 4 verso, 15th century.
By kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge.

This image is in the text of the Chirurgia (Surgery) of Henri de Mondeville (c. 1260-c. 1320), a learned surgeon of Paris, who began his text with a long section on anatomy. His anatomical knowledge was not based on practical dissection but on ancient authority. He is unusual in describing in the text a series of figures, usually found as small illustrations set into the body of the text. The Latin text says this is the figure of a flayed man who carries his own skin and the hair from his head on a stick balanced on his shoulders. On the excoriated man we are supposed to see flesh and fatty tissue, although the artist has only managed to suggest nakedness. It is doubtful whether Henri de Mondeville really saw the removal of all the skin and hair; he may have been more familiar with images of martyrs flayed for their faith.

Peter Murray Jones