Anatomical machines Anatomical machines The anatomical machines (Italian: "macchine anatomiche") are a couple of anatomical models reproducing the human circulatory system, exposed in the Cappella Sansevero in Naples. Realised in the second half of the 18th century, they are built on top of a couple of human skeletons, a male and a female. The reproduction of the vessel system was realised with metal wire, wax and silk, but because of its richness in details, for a long time it was believed that it was of natural origin instead. The models were commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro, prince of Sansevero, and realised by
John Barclay (anatomist) University of Edinburgh in 1789, and Barclay became an assistant there to John Bell the anatomist, and was also associated with his brother Charles Bell. His employer Sir James Campbell financed the completion of his medical course. Barclay qualified M.D. at Edinburgh, before studying anatomy under Andrew Marshall for a year in London. He returned to Edinburgh and established himself as an anatomical lecturer in 1797. Until 1825 he delivered two complete courses of human anatomy, a morning and an evening one, every winter session, and for several years before his death gave a summer course on comparative anatomy. His