Evelyn spent several years outside England in the 1640s, during the
English Civil War.
His diary records a visit to Padua in March 1646 to view dissection lectures at the
University of Padua, when he acquired the four tables (a later letter reports the price as 150
scudi). Three of the tables (arteries, nerves, veins) were prepared by
Giovanni Leoni d'Este (died 1649), dissector to
Professor of Anatomy in Padua,
Johann Vesling (1598-1649), for Leoni's own use. The fourth (vagi, lungs, liver) was prepared by Leoni at Evelyn's request. Evelyn travelled on, eventually returning to London. His diary also records the arrival of the tables in London in April 1649 (the journey via Venice having been delayed in Holland) and his donation of the tables to the nascent Royal Society in October 1667, which displayed them in the "repository" (museum) in the west gallery of
Gresham College on
Bishopsgate from 1674. A paper on the tables of arteries and veins was presented by
William Cowper on 21 January 1701 and later printed in
Philosophical Transactions, with his drawings engraved by
Michael van der Gucht. After a move to a new location in Crane Court, off
Fleet Street, the tables were acquired by the rapidly expanding
British Museum in June 1781, and then bought by the Royal College of Surgeons in 1809. == References ==