This chapter explores the practice of dissection in the first and second centuries AD, based largely on the evidence of Galen but drawing a picture beyond his activities alone. Divided into sections according to the contexts of and motivations for dissection, it begins with private dissections for practice and research. It next turns to performative dissections, beginning with those for public display. These public dissections occurred at different scales, and this section considers their contents, their diverse practitioners, and the size and make-up of their various audiences, including a discussion of venues, such as auditoria, and their capacities. The chapter then turns to examples of dissection specifically for medical advertisement, including evidence for public surgery, and then to two instances of dissection in the context of formal competition, one attested textually, the other epigraphically. Finally, it zeroes in on the competitive motivations of Roman dissection and its use in the adjudication of medical and philosophical debates, as well as in the jockeying between rivals.

This chapter considers the contribution Ibsen made to theatre practice in the late nineteenth century by concentrating on audiences, auditoria and acting. It begins with glimpses of two nights in the theatre separated by fifty years. The first glimpse comes from the opening of one of Ibsen’s least known plays, Olaf Liljekrans, in January 1857, at Komediehuset (the playhouse) in Bergen, where Ibsen did his theatrical apprenticeship. The second glimpse comes from a performance of one of his most famous plays, Hedda Gabler, in February 1909, at Den Nationale Scene (the National Stage) in Bergen. The changes in the practice of acting, as illustrated by these two performances, are analysed with regard to changes in the design of auditoria and cultures of spectatorship. The chapter argues that three modes – the spatial, the psychological and the spectatorial – are all intertwined in Ibsen’s major innovations in the practice of theatre.