We know very little concerning the teaching of anatomy during the Middle Ages. Only two authors, who both came to live in Lyon, Lanfranc and Guy de Chauliac, wrote on the subject. On the other hand, the important development of printing in Lyon from the sixteenth century onwards, made it possible to spread the translations of classic works and most of the books on Anatomy of the Renaissance. 2. However, Lyonese Anatomy developed very slowly because hospital training was more often badly organized. The only true supporter of Anatomy has been Marc Antoine Petit, chief surgeon of the Hôtel-Dieu before the French Revolution. 3. Apart from the parallel but only transient teaching of the Royal College of Surgery, one will have to wait for the creation of an official teaching first assumed by "schools" (secondary school and preparatory school) and finally by the Faculty of Medicine created in 1877. The names of Testut and of Latarjet contributed to the reknown of the Faculty of Medicine by their anatomical studies of great value for several generations of students. 4. Recently the Faculty of Medicine has been divided into four "universities". The new buildings are larger. The "gift of corpses" has brought a remedy to the shortage of the last twenty years. Anatomical research can be pursued thanks to micro-anatomy and bio-mechanics while conventional teaching is completed by dissection.
