L ucia D acome . Malleable Anatomies

Wax anatomical models became popular in the eighteenth century and have recently attracted considerable attention. Malleable Anatomies builds on and expands this body of scholarship by focusing primarily on Bologna and the collections that were brought together at the local Institute of the Sciences. Relying on impressive archival research based on dozens of manuscript collections from Malta to London, Lucia Dacome has produced a meticulously researched and richly illustrated series of microhistories that bring to life the processes of creation and circulation of wax models. These collections were a major source of civic pride: they were inspected by visiting anatomists and city surgeons and were studied and handled by local midwives, but they were also displayed in order to attract travelers on the Grand Tour. Dacome’s especially rich investigation of the last group provides valuable documentation of contemporary perspectives. The principal artists were Ercole Lelli and his rivals Giovanni Manzolini and Manzolini’s wife, Anna Morandi. A key patron—one could call him a midwife—of the Bologna workshops was Prospero Lambertini, first cardinal legate and then Pope Benedict XIV. While documenting his role in promoting his patria, anatomical waxes, and intellectual women such as Morandi, Laura Bassi, and Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Malleable Anatomies also contextualizes and problematizes his image as the “Enlightenment pope.” In particular, Dacome argues that his support for anatomy and the natural sciences went hand in hand with concerns for establishing a reliable sanctification process and authenticating and displaying holy relics

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